I always assumed the snake oil preps sold before the advent of the FDA sold for pep were basically energy drinks sold for mental fatigue or depression. But I saw a claim it was really a code word of sorts for erectile dysfunction. Is that true?
Most men notice, as they get older, that they don’t have the vigor or youthful energy they used to have. That means they can’t get it up as often as they did when they were kids.
Marketers of snake oils and other nostrums knew their target demographic back then fully as well as the people who have late-night commercials know their market now.
But, FWIW, I seem to have the impression that most of the buyers were women, and the pitch was aimed at “female problems.” This may be because my last research on a related subject was about Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound.
… or were you asking specifically about the term “snake oil”?
Aside from being a generalized derogatory term for quack patent medicines, the preparations actually named “So-and-so’s Snake Oil” were almost invariably liniments, and not “pep” drinks. Oils were usualy rubbed onto the skin, elixers and compounds were ingested.
Putting lead in your pencil has always been a selling point. It was just a matter of how graphic in your claims you could get away with. In 1917, “Doctor” J.R. Brinkley was purporting to restore the vitality of his patients. It was pretty clear what he meant by that. Especially since his procedure was to place the freshly snipped nuts of a young goat inside his patients scrotum.
A great book about him is called Charlatan. It does go into the general topic of cures and therapies for farmers who couldn’t plow their fields as often as they used to. It also talks about quack medicines in general because ol’ Doc Brinkley was making a fortune off of them from the new medium of radio advertising.
It wasn’t necessarily just a matter of getting it up, but also of keeping it up.
The miraculous thing about patent medicines is that they were good for EVERYTHING!
Rheumatism, stomach problems, lung congestion, canker sores – didn’t matter.
“Seminal weakness” was just part of the galaxy of ailments one bottle could cure.
Joint pain? “My ‘joint’ is causing me pains.”