Nostrum Remedium: A Brief History of Pharmaceutical Marketing

Some of the earliest advertisements in history came from what was later to become pharmaceuticals. Indeed, our story starts in the 18th Century.

Patent Medicines of the Eighteenth Century

It was the ads for patent medicines, known as Nostrum Remedium, that drove circulation of many newspapers. They were among the first categories of the advertising industry. Emerging from as early as the 1700s, patent medicine products ( nostrum remedium) were sold at high prices, and made from inexpensive ingredients. They used basic branding to stand out and often contained royal endorsement to protect the brand from copycats.

False product claims were rife. There was no regulation. Drug companies and many individuals could concoct outlandish recipes, patent them and market them however they wished with impunity. These were widely printed in the US and the UK in the 1800s. Scientific method — observation and thorough testing of hypotheses for an evidence-base — was yet to be established.

Early examples of these ads are hilarious. Patent medicines were often patently absurd. Things like weight-loss bath salts, cigarettes for asthma, and ointments that promised to offer “a certain and sure cure” for a range of completely unrelated maladies and disorders.