SAMPLE MEDICINES

By Digger Odell

©2000 Digger Odell Publications

Does this sound familiar? In any large grocery store on the weekend you’ll find at the end of every aisle a smiling lady standing behind a table and electric frying pan dangling a paper cup and napkin in front of you offering you a tasty morsel of the latest product. If you’re hungry or if it looks palatable, you stand around with two or three other people trying not to look impolite while you eat with your hands. Or you might sneak a sample off the tray when she’s busy with someone else and hurriedly push your cart past the lady. You notice a slight twinge of guilt as you munch the sample but decide not to purchase it. If you later stop by the mall you notice that in order to get that package of white socks you came for, you must navigate your way through the makeup and jewelry counters. As you do so, you see some teenage girls getting samples of the latest eye shadow and lip-gloss, but while you turn around to look, a lady from behind sprays you with a sample of cologne. You smile politely and work your way through the maze of aisles in the most remote corner of the store to get you socks. On your way home you pick up the mail and find CDs from two new on-line companies promising a free 30-day trial. As you get of your car you pick up the latest edition of a newspaper left for free for you to sample.

Companies marketing in a highly competitive environment besiege us to try their product in hopes of getting a new customer. This idea is not new, but it has reached epic proportions in our fast paced society. I can image in ancient times market vendors offering samples of their goods to passerby’s. The idea still thrives in the marketplace today. I remember setting up at a flea market some years ago and watching the lady next to me sell back massagers. She would stop people walking by and give them a back massage. This in and of itself was enough to draw attention from others and give a sample of her product. I was surprised by how many she sold at $9.95 a piece. As a marketing technique providing samples works.

The practice of distributing bottled samples in this country was not popular prior to the Civil War. I can’t think of any embossed sample bottles dating to that period. If there were any, they probably weren’t embossed as such and could have been distributed in generic bottles without embossing.

The medicine manufacturers used samples bottle but it was not widely adopted until very late in the 19^th century. The increase in the use of samples bottles paralleled the huge increase in the number of products available and probably occurred for the same reasons that we see it happening today. The market was crowded and it was getting harder to get a new product noticed. I’d estimate by 1890 there were probably 10,000+ different proprietary medicines on the market. By 1912, there were 30,000.  Getting a market share in such conditions required getting your product before the public and that was getting more difficult and more expensive.

Kodol Nerve Tonic //  Free Sample

Sample  Dr. Calvin's Croup Tincture

Fink's Magic Oil Sample

Dr. Lesson's Tiger Oil

Indiscriminant distribution of samples did not end with the initial outbursts as evidenced by this article ten years later. 

Druggist Circular January 1915

Regular and Sample Size Pepto-Magan Gude

Indiscriminate distribution of samples of drug preparations is a dangerous practice. In some states it is prohibited by law, but violations of the law are frequent occurrences. We read recently of an incident regarding this practice which occurred in a New England town that might have caused the death of a two and a half-year-old child. The danger of leaving samples of any sort in places where children and ignorant persons can get hold of them is apparent to all us, and unless samples can be delivered with descriptive literature by mail or otherwise, to responsible individuals, the practice should be refrained from. It is not only dangerous to distribute samples indiscriminately, but it is in the highest degree unprofitable.

Samples were not the only means used by companies to garner public attention.  There were some highly successful companies that to my knowledge never had a sample bottle.  They used a variety of other means to advertise.

It is interesting to consider the various means by which different companies sought the public’s attention. Some depended upon the newspapers. But newspaper advertising was an expensive option. Some companies who became major players in the medicine market rarely used newspapers. Consider two of the largest companies the H.H. Warner Company of Rochester, New York, makers of Warner’s Safe Kidney & Liver Cure and Andral S. Kilmer of Binghamton New York, makers of Dr. Kilmer’s Kidney Liver & Bladder Cure. Both used samples as a major means of getting their product out. Both companies also had advertising almanacs which may have been distributed with the samples or almanacs and samples often were simply picked up at the drug store. This probably made the druggists happy as it would bring people into the store where they might buy other goods as well.

Dr. Thacher's Liver & Blood Syrup

This Begg's Sample was an unusually large bottle.

Dr. Miles Restorative Nervine // Cures All Nervous Disorders

Hood’s Sarsaparilla, a national best-seller utilized a wide-variety of printed media, including vast amounts of newspaper advertising, board games, fans, calendars and the like, but while there are sample bottles known for the company they aren’t common. 

Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, perhaps the best selling medicine for ladies complaints by the turn of the century, to my knowledge, never produced a sample bottle, nor do I think they produced many almanacs either. Trade cards were one of the media exploited by this company. In days when color printing was rare, trade cards were all the rage. All manner of people made scrapbooks with the colorful giveaways.

 

Not all small sized bottles were "Free" samples many companies produced the small sized bottles and sold them for a small-sized price. Hick’s Capudine, Ballard’s Snow Liniment, and Cranitonic for the Hair all offered the customer a very small quantity they identified as a "Trial Size." The well-known Watkins Company capitalized on this idea and embossed each full sized bottle with a line marked "Trial Mark. The customer upon purchasing their product could sample it and return it for a refund if not satisfied provided that the contents were not below the "Trial Mark."

About 1910, S.B. Goff’s Cough Syrup was being sold in a 25 cent size. Part of the advertising wrapped around the bottle included a postcard which read, "Mail this card today for a free sample of Goff’s Herb Bitters." The patron was requested to give his address and that of a friend who might benefit to whom another bottle might be sent. A warning was noted: No sample would be sent unless the name of the dealer (from which the original purchase was made) was included. Apparently there were some unscrupulous consumers like the one described in a letter sent to the Druggist Circular which complained of a customer who requested a sample. The sample was sent and a week or so later, the customer complained the sample ""never arrived" and asked for another sample.

Bottles collectors have a wide choice of samples bottles to collect, but the largest number of samples bottles by far fall into the medicine and whiskey categories.  There are sample food bottles, whiskeys, gins, perfumes even sodas and beers.

Table of Sample Medicine Bottles and Rarity Ratings