Contest entry - The cure for drunkenness...

[blinkytreefrog.livejournal.com]

Okay, and here's another I had tucked away. I kinda debated putting this here at first because it's far from being funny like most of ads we've seen. If you read between the lines at what's not being said here, it's just rather sad.



Yeah, that's right. Cure your alcoholic husband, but secretly so he won't get cross. Man, way to prey on the hopes of abused women. Ouch.

Comments

[feorag.livejournal.com]

And if was something like an extract from shaggy ink cap, give her a load of extra cleaning, too.

Yes

[weelisa.livejournal.com]

There is something sad about ads like these.

yes

[whoseline_wlsc]

The name "Antidipso" makes me laugh. Who knows what it actually was...

Yeesus chroist

[mcamason.livejournal.com]

I can fully imagine something like this working, if "antidipso" is anything like antabuse, but it's also a good way to get yourself killed.

What a world we live in.

[singeaddams.livejournal.com]

Sad, yes, bordering on outright EVIL. I hope the con men responsible for this garbage got their heads caved in by semi-poisoned husbands.

[hazakaza.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, there actually are drugs out there that specifically make you ill when you drink. I dunno about this specific drug's actual use or content, but drugs like that CAN stop people from drinking through plain ol' negative conditioning. After a month or two of drink a beer, get violently ill, it can work. So it's not necessarily snake oil.

[singeaddams.livejournal.com]

Whether it might actually work or not is besides the point. Preying on women's fears is bad. Doping someone without their knowledge or consent is bad. I still wish nothing but ill on those people.

[hazakaza.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all points. I just wanted to mention that it's not necessarily snake oil. I hate the idea that they would take advantage of desperate women & sell them snake oil, but in reality it might be a remarkably effective drug that is still in use today. Doesn't making dosing anyone unwittingly more ethical, but the silver lining here is that the drug might actually be one that works, unlike some of the other advertisements we've seen!

[misstia]

i've seen recent ads in herb catalogs/magazines that promote a mix/tincture that makes alcohol tastes bad....

[fra-r.livejournal.com]

it killed my grandfather

[vp19.livejournal.com]

Save the drunkard!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

A little searching found a chemical analysis of "Antidipso" from 1909:

The powders had an average weight of 5.3 grains, single
powders ranging from 3.7 to 9.9 grains. The white and
tinted powders were made of the same constituents, with
a trace of colouring matter added in the latter case, but in
ilifferent proportions. Analysis showed the composition
to be:
WHITE POWDERS.
Potassium bromide ... 24.5 parts.
Sugar of milk ... ... ... 75.5 .,
COLOURED POWDERS.
Potassium bromide ... 35 parts.
Sugar of milk ... ... 65


"Sugar of milk" is lactose.

Exactly how effective potassium bromide is against alcoholism I am eager to learn.

[etinterrapax.livejournal.com]

Potassium bromide was used as an anti epileptic and calmative during the era when this ad was published, and into the 20th century (there's a scene in Hitchcock's Spellbound where a psychiatrist administers bromide in a glass of milk to calm a crazed amnesiac, and that was 1947). So it probably would have done something in this capacity, though curing alcoholism is unlikely.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Hence the old vernacular use of "bromide" as a synonym for "calmative".

[meleth.livejournal.com]

This ad saddens and angers me.

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

Same.

YES

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Wish it worked, but bet it didn't.

Yes

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

This is so fucked up from so many angles. I can't even--

[pony-rocks.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... wasn't something like this mentioned in Road to Wellville (a great movie, BTW)?

[meezergal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "White Star Alcoholism Cure" or "White Ribbon Liquor Cure" or something like that. Funny movie.

[baron154.livejournal.com]

Finally watched Boardwalk Empire last night, and this ad made me think of that abusive alcoholic husband. It must have been a very common story. Yes, this ad gives the sads.