America's Pastime: Patent Medicine Trade Cards on Pain Main Menu Introduction Student Projects 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.

The Power of Emotional Marketing: How Vintage Medical Trading Cards Used Children to Sell Their Products to Parents

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The Athlophoros Company’s Rheumatism and Neuralgia card is a wonderful example of using pictures of children to market to parents. The medicine is not directly advertised for use in children, that being for a blood disorder causing pain in the joints, but the card does a great job of catching the eye of the consumer. The young girl is nicely dressed and looks to be well fed. Although the card is in black and white, the detail of the girl is immaculate. Her gloves feature beautiful designs, and the stands of her hair can be individually counted. She also has plump cheeks and a full face. She looks like a healthy young girl. In an era when most people were poor and worked laborious jobs, this young girl represents what parents would want their children to look like. When young mothers were out shopping, they would immediately notice the card; and the advertisers knew that this would happen. The Athlophoros Company spent time and money on their cards to entice consumers to examine them. Also, rheumatism is common in physically demanding fields of work, the most common form at the time. Once the card was examined and flipped to the back, the young mother might feel the need to purchase, and use, the medicine to combat the illness affecting so many, possibly her husband.
 

Another apt example of using child imagery for marketing is in Indian Wine Bitters. Depicted front and center is a young girl with bright red cheeks, a vibrant pink and white dress, clutching a box of the aforementioned drops. She is the image of a healthy baby, so what could she possibly need with a remedy for rheumatic complaints? It is here where it becomes clear that she is not the likely target, but is meant to appeal to parents, mothers, and those who are itching for an ounce of the vitality and health that the spry young baby emanates. Interestingly, the grapevines in the background of the card relate the wine aspect of the drops, and also elicit sophistication around taking the medication (even though it is not actually a wine or alcohol product). This additional marketing ploy may appeal to a higher class crowd, particularly those who may be more willing to buy the medication even if they are unsure just how effective it is.

Allen’s Root Beer Extract is less direct in its marketing than the Indian Wine Bitters card, sharing this approach with the Rheumatism and Neuralgia card. Though similarly indirect in their advertising, Allen’s Root Beer Extract reveals a source of appeal different from that employed by the girl in the Rheumatism and Neuralgia card. While the mentioned girl is dressed in dainty clothing, including lace sleeves and a feathered hat, the girl in Allen’s card is dressed in a relatively simple dress and bow. Likewise, the first girl is the focus of that card, with no background or props besides her extravagant dressing, while Allen’s girl is placed in the outdoors, with flowers and a butterfly present, while clutching a bouquet of flowers. Allen’s Root Beer Extract favors an appeal that uses child imagery in harkening back to the health and beauty viewers associated with childhood, nature, and simpler times. Even within the use of child imagery, a variety of approaches existed.

In the image Anchor Pain Expeller again, we see the relationship between child marketing and medical trading cards reinforced. Upon further analysis, a blacksmith is in his workshop; the image indicates he is working extremely hard. In the left hand of the blacksmith, he is holding a hot iron rod, and in his right hand, a wooden hammer, portraying the message that the blacksmith is participating in extraneous work. In the background of the photo, there is also a fire. This blacksmith’s working conditions were more than poor, as all indications say the room was hot and uncomfortable. Towards the right side of the image, we see a young girl in a red and brown dress carrying a wooden tray with a glass bottle filled with “Richter’s Anchor Ferrola”. This emphasizes the message of emotional marketing; by showing a young child who is more than likely the man’s daughter attempting to take care of her older father, the blacksmith. The blacksmith was more than likely experiencing significant pain in all his joints due to the physicalness of his job. The back of the trading card states it is "unequalled remedy for gout, rheumatism, and sprains", consumers very well could have been attracted to this marketing ploy. In the 19th century, when labor was much more physical, a product like this could make a way day go by much more smoother. Using children who are the most innocent drives home the importance of empathy and could be an intelligent marketing tactic.

 

The Boschee’s German Syrup, August Flower and Ague Conqueror card is another prime example of using children to sell the products to parents. In this card we see four children and an older man. The children seem to be focused on the man and his interaction with the Boschee’s poster. The man seems to be a friendly figure to these kids , even possibly a parent. The little boy wearing the overalls seems to look up to this man and is paying very close attention to what the man is telling him. One of the children appears to be sick (see infant being carried) which further appeals to the emotional aspect of the consumer.The man's body language also tells another story. The way he is bent over shows that he is trying to talk to the kid about this product. This man takes the role of a teacher or educator and engages these kids in a lesson about Boschee’s syrup. There is so much irony of the man holding a pipe to smoke from while pointing it at “lung diseases” on the poster. Like many other cards that companies use , this one would definitely draw attention from parents just because of the use of the four kids.

This page has paths:

  1. Student Projects Chien-Ling Liu Zeleny

Contents of this path:

  1. Youthful Vigor: Patent Medicine Trade Cards and their Use of Playful Imagery when Marketing to Consumers
  2. Youth and Happiness: Marketing Medicine Through Indirect Symbolism
  3. What's With the Liver? A Case Study on Targeted Marketing
  4. Trading on Youth and Beauty: The Exploitation of Women and Children in Trade Card Marketing
  5. The Emotional Side of Medical Marketing: A Historical Analysis of Trading Cards Depicting Younger Patients

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