| Article by Frank N. Potter |
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And That's A Quack, Jack! by Frank N. Potter The "roots" of today's best selling soft drinks run deep - and dirty. That most American of industries, the soda pop business, got it's start during The Golden Age of Quackery, which flourished in this country from the mid-1800s until the Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906, put a crimp in unsubstantiated claims for products crossing state lines. In the province of advertising, the purveyors of what was later to become simply "soda pop" certainly had a way with words. They wove them into a surprisingly tough tissue of lies that spanned the skepticism of all but the most sophisticated - and delighted dunces as well as those gullible enough to have great faith in secret formulas. With their wily semantic fabrications these peddlers of promising panaceas conned their customers with warp as well as woof. For example, Doctor Augustin Thompson claimed, on the labels of his beverage Moxie Nerve Food, that it had "proved itself to be the only harmless nerve food known to man that can recover brain and nervous exhaustion; loss of manhood, imbecility and helplessness." The label then went on to say that Moxie Nerve Food "has recovered paralysis, softening of the brain, locomotor ataxia, and insanity when caused by nervous exhaustion." Advertising such as was indulged in by Moxie, Coca-Cola, Hood's Sarsaparilla, and many others employed dissembling of a very low order. It was, in short, full-fledged flim-flam. But Doctor Thompson, cloaked in the Teflon-coated reputation of his revered profession, shook off accusations of quackery like water from a duck's back. There has been some rationalization that Thompson was no more guilty of quackery than were countless others engaged in the lucrative cure-all commerce of the day - that he was forced by competition to put forth his own extravagant claims. In an 1885 pamphlet, Doctor Thompson wrote: "I do not like to advertise like a quack, but my friends say that I must give it to the world." And give it to the world, he certainly did! In an attempt to court the custom of Boston's upper crust, if not it's Brahmins, Thompson placed the following announcement among the courtesy ads in the Boston Theatre Programme of Jan 11, 1887: The Discovery As the world advances in civilization and intelligence, business and methods become competitive and demand the severest mental strain. To meet this the world has naturally rushed to the stimulants for support. Considering this, it is not surprising that our people have degenerated into muscular pygmies, and nervous prostration is the rule, and the insane asylums have been increasingly crowded with victims. Almost every case of insanity has originated from mental strain and stimulants. Never, in the history of the world, has the sale of stimulants been so large, or the danger of the obliteration of physical and mental force in the people been so dangerously prospective in the future. What wonder is it, then, the clergymen and moral associations so spontaneously stand by the harmless Moxie extract, as an agency that will stem the tide of destruction? Moxie Nerve Food has already proved that it is the Alexander of the period. It has cured drunkards by the thousands, effectively too; made more happy homes; cured more nervous, prostrated, overworked people, prevented more crime and suffering in New England than all other agencies combined. It has sold 5,000,000 bottles to the druggists in seventeen months; what will it do in five years? It is half the drink of the liquor shops now, and pays the same profit and does no harm. Frank N. Potter Reprint from: Nerve Food News - New England Moxie Congress; Fall 1999 |