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 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.

Innocent Imagery: A Technique of Patent Medical Trade Cards

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Introduction: Patent medicine trade cards helped medical corporations market and sell their medical compounds to the public. These cards featured brightly colored images on the front, which helped attract the public. The following cards selected from the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library’s collection of 247 patent medicine trade cards demonstrate how medical corporations used innocent imagery as an advertising technique. Innocent imagery included pictures of dogs and children, depictions of mothers and babies, and depictions of people in need of help. These images attracted potential customers, making them more likely to read the text describing the uses and benefits of the medication on the back of the patent medicine trade cards. 

Castoria: This trade card depicts a mother elephant feeding a baby elephant medicine. It helps advertise the product because it must be safe and beneficial if a mother is willing to give it to her innocent baby. The baby elephant depicts how Castoria is nursing the pain away. The use of a vivid color palette in this image attracts the customer. For illustration, the setting of Jumbo and her child is in the lower plains, with the sun setting with mountains in the backdrop. There is a red building with a blue roof that gives the appearance of being at a fair. To add more, please take a moment to look at the back of the card in the IIIF image at the top of the page. Once you have taken the time to read that passage, notice the use of specific language that claims Castoria can "cure instantaneously." Printing such language while mixing it with a stunning image is a flawed technique in selling medicine. Dishonest language in advertisements creates untrue claims that inflict worse issues for the consumer than curing the suggested illnesses on the back of the medical trade card. 

A. Danforth’s Great Vegetable Pain Destroyer: This card depicts three dogs sitting in a picnic basket next to a flowering plant. The placement of three animals in one basket makes them appear especially small and innocent. They also appear quite small compared to the plant, especially given that the flower is about the size of the dogs' heads. Their size and innocence, combined with the general popularity of dogs, helps attract the customer. Out of all of the patent medicine trade cards that existed at the time, the image on this card might have drawn more customers than a card with a less enticing image such as a picture of the medication. This image also encourages the customer to turn the card over. It does not clearly explain the medication itself but provides enough interest to make the customer want to learn more. 

Morse’s Indian Root Pills: This trade card depicts two tiny, innocent kittens on a shelf next to jam, catnip, and apple butter. The precise and cute drawing helps entice potential customers that resembles the first trade card with kittens. Using innocent imagery displays how Morses's Indian Root Pills help solve Biliousness and Sick Headaches. In acquisition, the colors on this medical trade card are full of life. The craftsmanship that went into drawing this image is captivating. It helps portray the blameless kittens getting themselves into trouble. 



Perry Davis’ Pain Killer: The front side of the Perry Davis’ Pain Killer trade card displays an ailing man slumped in a chair, grumbling about a debilitating toothache that has left him bedridden. To his left is a rather vibrant and jubilant individual – who bears a striking resemblance to the slumped man – who is holding a bottle of Perry Davis’, a one-stop remedy for all sorts of ailments! The card's cartoon-esque illustration style and inclusion of a seemingly ailing and helpless man further emphasizes the advertisement's reliance on evoking emotion from viewers, whether that be sympathy for the man or fear of experiencing a similar pain themselves. By making the man appear weak and innocent, the illustrators are able to entice consumers into purchasing the product themselves out of fear of becoming that feeble.


Unlike the previous two trade cards, this advertisement lacks a diverse color palette, instead choosing to use three colors: black, white, and faded pink. Instead, this trade card utilizes reputable consumer testimonials to elicit emotion in viewers, that emotion being the burning desire to buy the product before it runs off the shelves. The reverse side of the card contains customer testimonials that guilt trip mothers into purchasing the product for their children, claiming that "no mother should allow it to be out of the family."​​​​​​

Conclusion: Through the usage of exaggerated verbiage to guilt-tripping customer testimonials, the above examined patent medicine trade cards attempt to attract potential consumers into purchasing their respective products through whatever means necessary. Specifically appealing to the emotions of consumers through the usage of innocent imagery – such as young kittens and baby elephants – these advertisements were effective in enticing consumers to purchase the products by associating the items with an overarching sense of purity and happiness.
 

This page has paths:

  1. Student Projects Chien-Ling Liu Zeleny

Contents of this path:

  1. Pathological Medical Imagery
  2. Small, Innocent, and Marketable
  3. The Evoking of Pathos Through Medical Ephemera Advertisements
  4. Shayan Mansourian

This page references: