Fake Medicine Advertisements to be Purged from American Radio

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 1, 12 July 1935, Page 2

Fake Medicine Advertisements to be Purged from American Radio

A FIRST-HAND, authorative, and'startling exposure of the proprietary ‘medicines which American radio listeners are now being urged to buy through nation-wide broadcasting programmes, containing in some instances appeals which have been barred from the mails, was given at the end‘of May by the United States Federal Communications Commission.

ros HE development came just as the Columbia Broadcastins System had announced that it would cleanse its network ot objectionable advertising, and as the Communications Commission cited 21 stations, many of them outstanding, ic. appear at a censure meeting next fail to show cause why their licenses shoulil not be revoked, after carrying a programme of a prepration purporting to be an obesity cure, previously cited as injurious by the Federal Trade Con:mission. ; The information was presented in | public at the national conference of educators and broadcasters recently called by the Communications Commission, by Dr. Arthur J. Cramp. appear~ ing officially for the American Medical Association. To back his testimony, Ir. Cramp produced phonogranphte transcripts of records "taken off the air’ in recent weeks of programmes by the manufacturers of five patent medicines which he cited specifically by name. The transcript of his evidence is just available. "T have not picked out those I consider the worst or best in the patent medicine field," he told the commission, "T have tried as nearly as possible to take a fair cross-section of paterit medicine advertising as it goes on the air to-day." (THE effect of Dr. Cramp’s revelations is to give impetus to the Commis- — sion’s reform drive, which is being spurred by protests from clubwomen, parents’ organisations and educational groups. Dr. Cramp charged that broadcasters "are far behind newspapers and magazines" in censoring pernicious advertising, and assailed radio advertising as particularly objectionable beeause of its intimate character. Dr. Cramp started his list with one product which he described as "highly alcoholic," varying from 27 per cent. "to the present 18 per cent." at different t'mes. ‘Thirty years ago it was banned on Indian reservations because Tndians "got drunk on it." "Alcohol is a narcotic drug,’ Dr. Cramp said, "and sold indiscriminateiy

to the public in the guise of ‘patent medicine’ it carries with it very definite dangers." Dr. Cramp charged that another preparation purporting to be "a home treatment for poor digestion, heartburn, acid dyspepsia and stomach uicers" contains essentially baking powder, bismuth, subnitrate and magnesium oxide-‘‘a combination that is put up in non-proprietary form by most of the pharmaceutical] houses." "I might interpolate at this time," Dr. Cramp added, "that there has beeu a terrific number of these stomachulcers and hyperacidity patent medicines on the market during the depression. ‘The reason is not far to see.

"The depression has brought about & condition of worry in the minds of hundreds of thousands and millions, and that worry has reflected itself by upset digestive conditions, particularly . with hyperacidity. These people have been led to believe by advertising over. the radio and otherwise that they are suffering from stomach ulcer when they are not suffering from anything of the sort..."

DE. CRAMP asserted that another leading radio-advertising remedy had been the subject of action by federal and drug officials "in at least 16 cases," in some cases because it ‘contained filthy, decomposed and putrid substances," and in some cases because of claims that it was curative"claims," he asserted, "that were declared in court to be false and fraudulent." -The chief ingredients, he charged, were the "horse salts" of the yeterinarian, He asserted: "They should be classed among the habit-forming drugs, for there is no question but that they are responsible for a large proportion of cases of cathartie habit... ." "RADIO advertising of ‘patent medicines’ is more objectionable than newspaper advertising of the same products. Many newspapers, as a matter of enlightened self-interest, have developed certain standards of decency and censorship that keep out of their ges the advertisements of many products of this character. "Further, the public has, through several generations, developed a defence mechanism against the printed word and is much less likely to be carried away by false or fraudulent claims made in cold type than it is _ when similar claims are made verbally by a plausible radio announcer. "Then, too, claims that are to be made in a printed form have a permanency that causes the makers to be much more cautious than when they are to have the ephemeral character of a radio broadcast, "Tt igs also to be remembered that impressionable young people do not, as a rule, read ‘patent medicine’ advertisements in newspapers or magazines. These same people can hardly avoid listening to the ‘patent medicine’ ballyhoo that comes into their homes over the radio,"