Carbolic Smoke Ball and snake oil: Patanjali joins a long history of dubious medicinal advertising

In 1893, Clark Stanley gained attention as he introduced the American public to a product that he claimed would cure a variety of ailments – pain, lameness, sprains, animal bites and much more.

Appearing at events known as medicine shows, he would put snakes into boiling water. When the oil rose to the top, he would take it out and mix it into a special liquid. Stanley came to be known as the Rattle Snake King.

But in 1916, he was exposed as a fraud. His concoction was found to have no medicinal value and “snake oil” went on to become a synonym for fraudulent products with deceptive marketing.

In April, as India’s Supreme Court ordered Patanjali proprietor Ramdev and his associate Balkrishna to issue an unconditional public apology for its “misleading advertisements”, it served as a reminder that deceptive public notices by the pharmaceutical sector have a long history – as do attempts to curb them.

Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment was not the only dubious medicinal product on the US market at the time. Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills, Lydia Pinkham’s Herb medicine and Kickapoo’s Indian Sangwas Medicines were also advertised with exaggerated or entirely false assertions about their healing abilities.

These concoctions came to be...

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