Willow-bark and red poppies: Advertising the remedies for physical pain

Abstract

Abstract Advertisements for aspirin and nonaspirin substitutes are remarkably tedious. They are so uniform in their imagery, so narrow in their claims and so unmemorable in their dramatic methods that it might indeed be difficult to remember them were it not for the sheer frequency of their appearance in the coveted spaces of prime-time television and largecirculation magazines. Anything endlessly reiterated is likely to be tedious; anything barely noticeable is likely (once noticed) to be tedious; the two together do not produce what would ordinarily be understood as a winning combination. But the opening designation of this tediousness as ‘remarkable’ is not meant only as word-play; for when the advertising industry - not notorious for its restraint - suddenly becomes restrained, something at least moderately remarkable has in fact happened; and this restraint in turn must be recognized as only the visible sign of the anomalous and mystifying conditions that have brought it about.