PM'S CRUSADE AGAINST THE EVILS OF PATENT MEDICINE
Sheridan, Mary
Your Moneys Worth PM's Crusade Against The Evils Of Patent Medicine By MARY SHERIDAN ASPIRIN, Bromo-Seltzer, and Alka-Seltzer have become household words, thanks to advertising's secret:...
...The New York daily, PM, has been carrying on a rip-roaring crusade against the evils of many patent medicines...
...The FTC has issued complaints againrt BC Headache Powders and Dr...
...There is danger-in using Alka-Seltzer, or a similar bromide, for chronic indigestion, Dr...
...Since then the makers of the pain-killer have reduced the drug content...
...it is not dependent on the advertising income from patent medicines for any part of its funds...
...Those are only three products out of the patent medicine industry which draws approximately $500,-000,000 yearly out of American pocketbooks...
...Deutsch emphasizes that he does not want to be an alarmist about aspirin...
...Pow-A-Tan Herb Tonic, McNeil's Magic Remedy, and World's Tonic...
...Aaron adds, "a pinch of bicarbonate of soda in a little water or soda will serve as well" as Alka-Seltzer...
...Aaron again: "Almost all brands of aspirin are alike...
...The Journal of the American Medical Association recently cited medical experiments that show aspirin taken in large quantities for a long time may proc ice a shortage of prothrombin—a coagulating substance—in the blood...
...Millions of dollars are spent yearly on newspaper and magazine advertising, radio programs, and, billboards to push the pain-killers before the public...
...Deutsch also quotes Lancet, a British medical journal, which expressed concern that "a drug (aspirin) which caused 65 deaths in one year is not classified as a poison...
...Your Moneys Worth PM's Crusade Against The Evils Of Patent Medicine By MARY SHERIDAN ASPIRIN, Bromo-Seltzer, and Alka-Seltzer have become household words, thanks to advertising's secret: repetition...
...Pointing out that some dangerous drugs were being sold too freely, Lancet said: "Aspirin poisoning is mounting, in spite of the quantity that must be taken" to produce death...
...Harold Aaron, medical adviser to Consumers Union who has made an extensive study of drug claims...
...The public buys about $20,000,000 yearly of the drug...
...The PM series is a public service, and I wish there were some way its crusade could win by support of the nation's press the power that makes advertising effective: repetition...
...His point is that aspirin is a potentially harmful drug but that the public doesn't know that because of "reckless patent medicine advertising of the drug which suppresses the facts on its potential dangers, encourages people to abuse it by overdosing, and, in some instances causing slavish dependence on it with disastrous results...
...The cheap varieties are as effective as the expensive...
...Yet this "safe" pain-killer contains, Deutsch charges, two active ingredients that the Food and Drug Administration regards as potentially dangerous—acetanilid and sodium bromide...
...Among the other patent medicines which Deutsch accuses of misleading advertising, ballyhoo claims, or potential danger to consumers are Listerine, 666...
...Aaron warns...
...He does not pretend that his work is particularly original or that the series is a "blanket indictment" of all patent medicines...
...Bayer's, the most heavily advertised aspirin, and one of, if not the most, expensive brands, plugs its powers on the American Melody Hour, the American Album of Familiar Music, Lorenzo Jones, and Second Husband programs...
...The "genuine" Bayer product also is hawked constantly in newspaper and magazine advertising...
...Who doesn't know that patent medicine call, "Be wise—alkalize...
...For an occasional attack of gas, Dr...
...Occasional Use of aspirin, according to directions, is one thing...
...To quote Dr...
...Albert Deutsch, the PM staff writer doing the series, has d»ne an admirable job of digging out medi-caland scientific facts and opinion that expose many patent medicine claims as false, exaggerated, and sometimes dangerous...
...As Labor, organ of the Railroad Brotherhoods, points out, a campaign 40 years ago of the Philadelphia North-American, aided by Colliers', exposed r.am-trums of that day and helped Dr...
...Because of overuse of the drug, Deutsch adds, hundreds of cases "have been sent to our mental hospitals, officially diagnosed as 'psychosis, caused by'bromides.'" In 1939 the Food and Drug Administration seized 9,500 packages of Bromo-Seltzer, claiming that it was misbranded and "dangerous to health when used in "the dosage or with the frequency prescribed" on the label...
...Alka-Seltzer, which is advertised as a cure for acid indigestion, headaches, heartburn, neuralgic and muscular pains, and over-indulgence in food and drink, is composed mainly of aspirin and sodium bicarbonate...
...But, Labor declares, "the Administration lest interest in the fight and Tugwell was left hanging on a limb, fair target for the sniping of patent medicine makers and newspaper publishers who saw peril to their advertising revenue...
...Regardless of the Bayer (which for 17 years monopolized the product) claims, all aspirin, says Deutsch, is the same in essence...
...Those Brands Of Aspirin Much more dangerous than aspirin is the drug acetanilid, one of the main ingredients not only of Bromo-Seltzer, but also, Deutsch charges, of BC Headache Powder, Orangeine, Garfield Headache Powder, Dr...
...he has coolly integrated the charges that can and should be made and publicly aired...
...And Bromo-Seltzer has good spots on the airways and advertises heavily...
...Deutsch backs up his accusations...
...Over-use of aspirin, Deutsch warns, may be dangerous...
...If you don't hear it on the Quiz Kids program, you will on the Lum and Abner program, or you'll see the blurb in the Alka-Seltzer comic strip ads...
...Deutsch quotes Dr...
...In eprly New Deal days, Rexford Guy Tugwell established a "Chambers of Horrors" in Washington, showing the terrifying effect of patent medicines on the human body...
...What about aspirin...
...Bromo-Seltzer can be bought in almost any drugstore...
...The Federal Trade Commission has a complaint pending against the Bromo-Seltzer people, charging "grossly exaggerated, false, and misleading" advertising claims...
...Advertising, aided by the implied approval of the entertainment stars who appear on the patent medicine radio programs, has made Bayer's aspirin, Bromo-Seltzer, Alka-Seltzer, and many of their cousins household words...
...It's still acetyl salysilate, and brand names make little or no difference...
...He uses it himself on occasion...
...PM, owned and backed by Marshall Field's millions, carries no advertising...
...They argue that though the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Food and Drug Administration continue to clamp down on products insofar as their authority permits—which few papers tell the public—the patent medicine makers go right on hawking their wares— which the papers will continue to advertise because of the fat profits they bring in—and the gullible public continues to buy the patent medicines, and so the mess is one vicious circle...
...Admirable Job In PM The cynics accept the situation as hopeless...
...Its benefits are as exaggerated as its price...
...He says it is much safer than most other pain-killers...
...Harvey W. Wilsy in his fight for stiffer food and drug legislation...
...That's something for your doctor to take care of, not your druggist...
...From the ads, you would think it contained a dash of magic too...
...You incur two serious dangers: the possibility of neglecting a potentially serious ailment and the chance that the Alka-Seltzer ingredients may be—as they do in some conditions—intensify the very disease they are supposed to alleviate...
...Aaron declares that the blood of a healthy person does not need' "alkalizing...
...Miles' Anti-Pain Pills for false advertising...
...Miles' Anti-Pain Pills, Stanback Headache Powders, and others...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 21
