Judge, 1928-05-12 · page 11 of 36
Judge — May 12, 1928 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Satire of Patent Medicine Advertising This page satirizes the absurd overclaiming of patent medicines and mouthwash advertising, a major target of early 20th-century satirists. The "Libertine Chemical Co." advertises their mouthwash as a cure-all for an absurdly comprehensive list of ailments—from arthritis to traffic congestion to "business English"—a parody of real advertising practices of the era, when patent medicines genuinely made wildly false health claims. The joke: a company executive contests for a "unique use" for the product. A college student wins by discovering what it actually does—functioning as mouthwash—having mistaken it for something else. The satire mocks both the fraudulent marketing and consumer gullibility. The second cartoon (lower half) appears to be a separate, unrelated joke about domestic hardship, mentioning reduced rations and the "Battle of the Century" (likely a boxing reference).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The New Use “We have,” said the president of the Libertine Chemical Co., Inc., “advertised our mouth wash, Libertine, as extremely good for epithelial debris, ar- thritis, that tired feeling, bili- ousness, dyspepsia, immersion, moths, colds in the head, eye strain, heart trouble, slicing, per- nicious anemia, bruises, torn liga ments and broken bones, deodor- izing, removing spots from. in front of cyes and garments, rabbies, hitch-hiking, arterio- sclerosis, contract bidding, in- somnia, piano tuning, memory de- velopment, the hives, static, in- cipient appendicitis, chilblains, polishing furniture, business English, crop rotation, — paint eradicating. tonsilitis, hang-nails, pyorrhea, distemper, traffic con- gestion, mal de mer, versation, houser ad dressing, fertilizing the garden, mixing cocktails, washing lingerie, megrims and several other things that escape me at the moment. You gentlemen have the complete list before you. What. is the question, can we make the basis for our next year's advertis- ing campaign? The assembled officers of the Libertine Chemical Co., Inc., and the gentlemen from the advertis- gency that serviced them, at n per cent. the service, looked baffled. They fi y con- fessed they were bathed. aid a small vice- president, leaning his head on the conference table, ‘‘an idea.” The confer looked aston- ished but attentive. Why not,” continued the small ice-president, “run a contest to find a unique use for our mouth wash, Liber ” contest was duly adver- 50,000 was spent on it ),000 more was offered as It was a huge success. 50,000 prize was won by a college boy who wrote, “Think- ing my bottle of Libertine, which I use to aid me in solving my problems, was thing else, I used a little Liber- tine in my water after cleaning calculus some- my teeth this morning. I find it makes an excellent mouth wash.” —Carrort Carron JUDGE Well, public, here’s one written by and for the feeble-minded, so light up your stogies and bend ear. gonists are a couple of cinders. “Why so angry, Harry?” inquired the first. “Oh, I just wasted half an hour in a glass chagrined soot-s " retorted the peck. And so, arm in arm, they walked into the dawn of a new tomorrow, Moturr—I'm sorry if you're hungry, children, but we'll have to go on half rations from now on to the nest “Battle of the Century ather is saving up to go comicbooks.com