But their secret was to be more than merely eye-catching: the medicine ads brazenly promised to make wishes come true.*1 And what more basic and seductive human wish than to be cured of one's infirmities? Clark Stanley described his snake oil as good for "rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame back, lumbago, contracted muscles, toothache, sprains, swellings, etc." Some patent medicines, like "The Elixir of Life" sold by a Dr. James W. Kidd, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, went so far as to promise immortality, deliverance from the greatest fear of all.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 91