America's Pastime: Patent Medicine Trade Cards on Pain Main Menu Introduction Student Projects The Power of Emotional Marketing: How Vintage Medical Trading Cards Used Children to Sell Their Products to Parents The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of patent trade medicine cards across the country. Prominent among the many marketing strategies employed were those involving child imagery. By exploring the historical juncture between child imagery and society, new insights are gained regarding the appeal of child imagery and its employment in various marketing approaches. - By Kevin Kerr, Curran Whitney-Vazquez, Chandler Warth, Samuel Sakowski, Eden Breslauer-Friedman Clothing as Tool of Expression: Utilizing Fashion in 19th Century Marketing In analyzing our group’s medicine trading cards, we were able to convey the significance of clothing throughout its relation to medicine. Various forms of clothing demonstrate symbolism towards an indvidual’s perception on medicine as well as foreshadowing the message in which the trading cards demonstrate. The various forms of clothing and stances the individuals and characters in the trading card portray indicate symbolize towards various forms of clothing and stances to highlight the social class and hierarchy of power with its purpose in medication trading cards. The way that every individual is dressed eludes to different perceptions of varying social classes as the medical epherma is not targeted to one specific group. This persuades individuals to buy the medicines and adapt to their encouraged medicine techniques. - By Brittney Abdi, Alan Torres, Jolene Matian, Zoe Rosenberg, Javier Perez Mejia Humanity, Animals, and Religion: The Metaphorical Sense of Rebirth and Apotheosis of Purity. In the late 19th and early 20th century, America saw a rise in Patent Medicine leading up to the civil war. It was a lucrative trade that encouraged individuals to cultivate their own brand and medicinal products. The rise in Patent Medicine could be explained by a multitude of factors, such as rapid increases in industry and manufacturing, urban living, the absence of drug regulation, and the lack of accessibility and distrust of contemporary medical practices. During this period, Patent medicine companies vigorously marketed their products through small, colorful cards that featured illustrations , along with information about the medicine's supposed benefits and ingredients. To persuade consumers to purchase their products, patent medicine companies utilized a variety of marketing techniques. Some of the most popular ones being the portrayal of humanity, animals, and religion to convey the notion of rebirth and purity. - By Dominic Castillo, Vanessa Jiang, Stephen Liu, Leo Martinez, Selena Quispe The Utilization of Youthful Figures, Both Humans and Animals, in Medical Trading Cards The UCLA Library Digital Collections consist of a diverse collection of Patent Medicine Trade Cards that depict historically meaningful and strategic methods of medical advertising, specifically focusing on irregular and alternative medicines. The following trade cards investigate the significance of youthful figures in medical advertisements, as seen in both humans and animals. - By India White Cloud, Shanya Rostami, Andreas Tunney, Noah Orshansky, Netaniel Daee, and Justin Vayakone The Appeal of Youth and Family in Patent Medicine Trading Cards Medical Ephemera has had a long history of using emotional tactics to appeal to its intended target audiences. One of the most prevalent motifs is that of youth and children. Through visual and written rhetoric, this theme appeals to many family oriented communities and their values. From reliability to rejuvenation, for many people children can represent what they want in a medicine. However, this era of trade cards was particularly deceitful towards audiences by using this rhetoric, yet had a significant impact on marketing tactics that are still seen and thriving today. - By Lauren Tanaka, Allison Bushong, Mollie Brown, and Garrison Hallum Innocent Imagery: A Technique of Patent Medical Trade Cards The evolution of curing pain and uplifting human welfare greatly interested the public. To help combat this suffering, medical corporations turned to advertising through Patent Medical Trade Cards. These small cards significantly helped sell medicines throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States of America. Specific techniques and styles, such as Innocent Imagery, assisted in attracting the consumer to purchase the drug. For instance, harmless animals, delicate flowers, and emotional characters were critical sources of visualizing innocence. -By Lauren Heiberg, Sean Eshraghi, Bradley Reed, Camila Ramirez-Leng and Shayan Mansourian Youth as a Marketing Tactic to Relieve Pain Our group page dives into the way patent medicine trade cards have utilized youth and innocence as a marketing tactic to improve their advertisement. We have focused on UCLA library’s collection as a whole and chosen to individually select a few of the cards that best match our theme all together. This project has allowed us to study the advertisement techniques of medical cures and solutions of its time as a group. We hope our findings are as insightful to you as they are to us - By Tara Kahrobaie, Rebeca Daee, Talia Fouladian, Ashley Kohen, Nathan Darougar, Saman Khalifian The Children of Medicine: An Appeal to Consumer Emotions Our group page explores the intricacies of 19th century marketing strategies that heavily revolved around depictions of children and the youth in an attempt to psychologically appeal to the emotions of consumers in hopes of converting sales. However, we also discuss how problematic this can be, especially when the product advertisement itself is deceiving and may even pose a threat to the lives of consumers. Though effective, using the youth to advertise products can be unethical and as a result, there were different legislations enacted to combat this and different marketing strategies have evolved in conjunction with it. - By Johnny Thai, Margarita Balbuena, Ryan Nelson, Chuntao Qiu How Depictions of Women and Children Sell Medication In this page, we examine the usage of women and children portrayed on patent medicine trade cards to advertise and sell medication. Throughout this page, we employ the collection of patent medicine trade cards from the UCLA Library Digital Collections, analyzing the images and text to gain a deeper understanding of this form of advertising. - By: Jacquelyn Bakshian, Abby Kim, Tyler Maghen, David Sagizadeh, Shana Simanian, Mia Tumbaga The Influence of Innocence and Purity in Patent Medicine Trade Cards This page will explore how themes of innocence and purity were primarily utilized in patent medicine trade cards in order to generate enticing advertisements to consumers at the time. Themes of purity, innocence, and femininity entwined with the audience's perception of an ideal person, and this page will dissect how these themes were utilized to create an impactful advertisement for medical ephemera. —By Lesley Sierra, Alejandro Haro, Taylor Sullivan, Karina Tairyan, Jennifer Lay, Parinaz Kyavar The Healing and Appealing Powers of Purity and Femininity Our group page focuses on the use of femininity and purity in advertising as a means to demonstrate the efficacy of the advertised medications. Through close inspection of various Patent Medicine Trade Cards from the UCLA Biomedical Library Special Collections, our group has gained an understanding of advertising strategies and the use of cultural norms to demonstrate medicinal efficacy. Women, ideas of femininity, and purity found in nature are the central themes of our scalar book and reveal advertising strategies of medications in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These cards as well as our own individual pages will explore the complex and historically relevant themes of femininity and purity through the lens of advertising strategies of medications and medicinal products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. - By Stephanie Zager, Ella Kitt, Megan Sparrow, Corey Gear, Neda Afsharian Parental Protective Instincts: Child Imagery in Patent Medicine Trade Cards In the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century, pharmaceutical companies established marketing strategies in which they value child imagery upon the medical trade cards. By evaluating and uncovering new insights regarding the appeal of child imagery, the selection of six cards from the UCLA’s Patent Medical Trading Card collection will elucidate its marketing values and how it appeals to buyers. By Chelsie, Adrian, Micaiah, Princess Animals used In Medicine Trade cards Our presentation focuses on the use of animals in Patent Medicine trade cards, as advertisements , essentially animals are used are marketing tools. By using animals as the main focus on the image, the companies are able to grasp the attention of the viewers. - By Aaron Kohanbash, Aaron Ezra Kohanbash, Elan Amona, Samuel Kohanteb, and Avner Shamtoub The Usage of Various Species in Advertising Medicinal Products The UCLA Patent Medicine Trade Cards expounds on medicine under a variety of labels and names through its collection of 247 patent medicine trade cards. With the variety of medical products on the market, companies utilized artwork to advertise their products to the general public. Specifically, various species and the attributes associated with them were one common theme among patent medicine trading cards. - By Hoyeol Lee, Fady Tawfik, Daniel Rabkin, Mia Kubal, Sarkis Vartanyan, and Daniel Pirian Utilizing Trade Cards as a Key Advertising Technique Trade card makers employed them as a medium to promote medical products, utilizing various advertising tactics to entice consumers and guarantee profitable sales. These marketing approaches included leveraging maternal connections, portraying children, emphasizing the product's "healing powers," and presenting visually appealing designs. By- Hannah Shaye, Yaelle Shaye, Leah Tabibi, Odelia Safadel, Ely Gabbaypour, and Arya Afgham 19th Century Remedies for Women's Daily Troubles During the 19th century, patent medicine trade cards often were marketed to women. These cards advertised products that intended to relieve ordinary women of troubles that they faced on a daily basis. Many of these products included cure-alls, medicine for mothers, and medicinal makeup, which addressed the frequent concerns women experienced regarding bodily health, motherhood, and femininity. – By Omotola Adesina, Gengjia Lin, Renateh Moradian, Grant Pate, and Brooke Vallone.

Marketers Deceptive Strategy Through means of Trade Cards

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Medical ephemera, such as trade cards, were often used to promote various medical products and treatments in the 19th and early 20th centuries through the means of deceptive tactics. These typically featured colorful and eye-catching illustrations, along with promotional text that touted the benefits of the product or treatment being advertised. One way in which medical ephemera used deceptive advertisement was through exaggerating or even fabricating the efficacy of their products.

Some of the ephemera produced by Morses Root Pills featured images of cats, which were used as a marketing tactic to suggest that the pills were safe and effective for animals as well as humans. These ads often depicted a cat with a bottle of Morses Root Pills, suggesting that the product was suitable for use in treating feline health conditions.

This use of cats in advertising was a common tactic in the patent medicine industry, as it played on people's emotional attachment to their pets and suggested that the product was safe and reliable for all members of the family. However, the reality was that many patent medicines were not safe for human use, let alone for animals.

In fact, the use of Morses Root Pills in cats could have serious health consequences, as the pills contained ingredients like aloes and jalap, which can be toxic to cats in large doses. The use of cats in advertising for the pills was therefore a deceptive marketing tactic, designed to appeal to people's emotions and encourage them to buy a product that could potentially harm their pets.

Overall, the use of cats in advertising for Moore's Root Pills was a common example of the deceptive marketing tactics used by the patent medicine industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By exploiting people's emotional attachment to their pets and making false claims about the safety and efficacy of their products, patent medicine manufacturers were able to sell their often-harmful products to an unsuspecting public.

For example, trade cards for patent medicines often made exaggerated claims about the ability of their products to cure a wide range of ailments, despite the fact that many of these medicines had little or no scientific basis.There was a patent medicine in the late 19th century called " Pain Stop Medicine". It was marketed as a cure for a wide range of ailments, including headaches, toothaches, neuralgia, and menstrual cramps. The medicine was named after its inventor, J. A. Kilbourne, and was advertised as a combination of natural ingredients that were said to relieve pain quickly and effectively. However, the exact composition of the medicine is not known, and it was likely a mixture of various substances. Another way in which medical ephemera used deceptive advertisement was by using imagery and language that appealed to people's emotions, rather than providing factual information. For example, trade cards for tonics and other health products often depicted images of happy, healthy families or beautiful women, suggesting that using the product would lead to similar happiness and beauty, similar to the image depicted in which a happy healthy and presumably wealthy mother is on a walk with her cute infant.The creator of this specific piece of ephemera used information posted on the back of the card to instill confidence in the buyer that the medicine is effective. The information posted on the back assures the customer that all pain will leave the patient soon after taking the medicine. The back says that toothaches, colds, chills and cramps are all healable using this medicine. Although there was no extensive research over the effectiveness of this medicine, people were easily baited into buying the medicine because they were told their pain would leave immediately. Killbournes Pain Stop Medicine was a patent medicine marketed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and like many patent medicines of the time, it used deceptive advertising techniques. The advertising for the product relied on exaggerated claims, false information to convince people to buy it. The company claimed that Kilbourne's Pain Stop Medicine was a cure for a wide range of ailments, from headaches to menstrual cramps, despite having no scientific evidence to support these claims. The advertising made unsupported claims of its effectiveness in curing these medical conditions, using exaggerated language that suggested it was a miracle cure. However, in reality, the product was likely a mixture of various drugs, including opium and alcohol, which could provide temporary relief from pain but carried significant risks, including addiction, overdose, and other health problems. 

Similar to Kilbourne's Pain Stop medicine, Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup was another popular patent medicine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and like many other patent medicines of the time, it used deceptive advertising to sell its product, in specific the use of women in its advertisements, particularly mothers just like Killbourne's. The advertisements often depicted a mother or nurse holding a baby or small child, with the implication that the syrup was safe and effective for use on children. The images were often accompanied by text that made exaggerated claims about the benefits of the syrup, such as its ability to soothe teething pain or calm fussy babies.

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