Pills and profits : the selling of medicines since 1870 : an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold, Tilli Tansey.

  • Arnold, Ken, 1960-
Date:
1994
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Pills and profits : the selling of medicines since 1870 : an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold, Tilli Tansey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    board-game (a version of Snakes and Ladders), the identification of the land of 'Health and Happiness' with Gibbs' Dentifrice is indicated by the company flag fly- ing from the castle. The advertising slogan used was: Your teeth are Ivory Castles - defend them with Gibbs Dentifrice. Modern Medicine Collection pam WR26.BE5 1930 G44w VI. 14 'Irving's Yeast-Vite tablets' calendar/blotter, 1930. 'Wincarnis' 'Motor & cyclist Map of England', [192-?] 'Yeast-Vite' was rather grandly promoted as The Greatest Medical Discovery of the Century. For the doctors, chemists and pharmacists, at whom they were aimed, blotters were a very effective advertising medium. 'Wincarnis' was marketed as a delicious tonic & restorative recommended by over 8000 medical men. The fact that a full map of the country was based on a series of sheets allowed the advertising material to be turned into a commodity that might itself be collected. Modern Medicine Collection pam WR26.BE5 1930 G44w VI. 15 'Triludan' promotional leaflet, 1983. 'Cortophin and Cortophin-2N' promo- tional leaflet, [197-?] The practice of advertising medicines exclusively to the medical professions developed at the end of the nineteenth century. As these later examples indicate, a certain amount of scientific literacy could be assumed in preparing them. The 'Cortophin' leaflet con- tains a good deal of technical information, while that for 'Triludan' shows a stylised molecular model. Modern Medicine Collection pam WK500 1961 068c; pam QV157 1983 M56t VI. 16 Advertisements for 'Metosyn', 'Minocin', 'BenoraT, 'Vivalan', 'Ponderax', 'Maalox', 'Stugeron' and 'Lioresal', 1970s to 1980s These advertisements were all included as loose sheets in the pharmaceutical maga- zine Chemist and Druggist. Their format is fairly consistent. A striking image is cou- pled with a slogan that then explains the link between the idea of the image and the product: the boomerang-shaped leaflet, for example, reads some skin patients just keep coming back!. Modern Medicine Collection pam QV69 1975 P53a, pam QV76-5 1983 C56d & C56d 2