kengmiles
Professors Brodum Physician & Oculist. Aphrodisiacs, Elixirs & Restorative Nervous Cordial
Stamford Georgian Festival
Quacks were nicknamed “advertising professors”, and many of these hustlers rose to fame and fortune by using the media to their advantage. Dr Richard Rock (c. 1690–1777) became so famous that he appears in William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress, albeit in an unflattering light. Rock advertised his “Antivenereal Cathartic Electuary” in the press and with trade cards, and he gave out a printed “Book of plain Instructions” with every bottle. But he also sold his “itch powder” and famous “Viper Drops” from a one-horse chaise in London's Covent Garden, and so he straddles the junction of the old-fashioned world of quacks who sold remedies directly to a mob, and the new breed of marketing-savvy traders who exploited print media.
Quacks selling proprietary medicines frequently colluded with newspaper publishers, who not only ran the vendors' advertisements in their pages, but often sold the remedies on the printers' premises for a cut of the profits. Another ploy was the “puff”, which was ostensibly an article reporting impartially on the wondrous efficacy of a new drug, but which was actually a kind of “advertorial” paid for by the manufacturer of the remedy.
Professors Brodum Physician & Oculist. Aphrodisiacs, Elixirs & Restorative Nervous Cordial
Stamford Georgian Festival
Quacks were nicknamed “advertising professors”, and many of these hustlers rose to fame and fortune by using the media to their advantage. Dr Richard Rock (c. 1690–1777) became so famous that he appears in William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress, albeit in an unflattering light. Rock advertised his “Antivenereal Cathartic Electuary” in the press and with trade cards, and he gave out a printed “Book of plain Instructions” with every bottle. But he also sold his “itch powder” and famous “Viper Drops” from a one-horse chaise in London's Covent Garden, and so he straddles the junction of the old-fashioned world of quacks who sold remedies directly to a mob, and the new breed of marketing-savvy traders who exploited print media.
Quacks selling proprietary medicines frequently colluded with newspaper publishers, who not only ran the vendors' advertisements in their pages, but often sold the remedies on the printers' premises for a cut of the profits. Another ploy was the “puff”, which was ostensibly an article reporting impartially on the wondrous efficacy of a new drug, but which was actually a kind of “advertorial” paid for by the manufacturer of the remedy.