Have you ever asked your doctor if a medication is “right for you?” Has your favorite celebrity ever tried to sell you a diet pill?
We might think of medical advertising as a modern phenomenon, but the techniques we see today have been shaped by the past two centuries of medical marketing, from the use of jingles to patient testimonials and even celebrity endorsements.
Our new exhibition, Marketing Medicine: The Art of Selling a Cure, explores the interplay and co-evolution of medicine and advertising through the lens of medical trade ephemera. The exhibition guides you through medical texts of colonial America to the rise of print ephemera, coinciding with the explosion of therapeutics during the 1800s and early 1900s, and explores the growth of pharmaceutical sales representatives and direct-to-consumer marketing in the 20th century, ultimately leading to the rise of the modern wellness industry.
Marketing Medicine, opening during National Archives Month, showcases objects from The College of Physicians of Philadelphia’s vast collection, illustrating how enterprising salespeople utilized new printing and advertising techniques to sell Americans a cure.
This exhibition has been made possible by the generosity of the Groff Family Memorial Trust.