Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Alka-Seltzer

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a LEGACY it is. Welcome back to Justin McElroy’s Medical Brand Hall of Fame, where we can put aside questions of science and efficacy and focus on what really matters: How Juliana Marguiles’ dad wrote a jingle that was hidden for 20 years before it changed the world.

Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, talk is about books. One, two, one, two, three, four. We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's busted out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth. Wow! Hello everybody and welcome to Saabon. for the mouth. Hello everybody and welcome to Saabones, a marital tour of Miss guided medicine. I'm your co-host Justin McElroy. And I'm Sydney McElroy. This is a busy time of year folks and you never know what's gonna be Coming down the pike at you. Holidays just spring up out of the air. The holiday spring up out of nowhere. Who knew it was Thanksgiving? I look outside my window in my spacious New York condominium and I see frigging Garfield. Out there. It was there at Garfield Float?

Garfield is just floating by with his old friend Snoopy and Wimpy Kid and I was like, oh my gosh. Gotta have that Wimpy Kid every year. It's Thanksgiving already. And I left my spacious New York condominium that I have and I went and bought a turkey for me, my wife, Victoria and our 18 children that all live in my spacious New York condominium.

This is a weird fiction that you've- I'm Daddy Warbucks in this, so I got Annie and the other kids in this. I don't, but the woman isn't named Victoria. It's just later marriage. This is later on. Oh, okay. This is in my, have you not read my Annie fan fiction?

I always, every time we see that Annie is happening again somewhere around us, I always have to ask Justin like, does he help anybody else by the end? I always forget. Like, I know he helps Annie, but he helps everybody. does he help anybody else by the end? I always forget, like I know he helps Annie, but he helps everybody. Does he help anyone else? He does. He helps lots of it, it gets with FDR.

They make a new deal for Christmas. Come on, Annie. Wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no. So are we supposed to believe that the reason that we got the new deal was Daddy Warbox, the fictional character name. Well, I would argue it's, Annie. I'm not Mr. Warbox.

Daddy. Daddy who made his money off the war. So daddy Warbox. Okay, listen, we've lost the plot. It's rough, Justin. We've lost the plot. Sydney is trying to derail me because this is a special treat. We do it every once in a while when I have the time in my busy schedule.

It's not about whether or not Sydney is very busy helping people. It's about me and my busy schedule, but luckily for you folks, I have enough time to once again open the door into the Medical Brands Hall of Fame. Welcome to my very special Medical Brands Hall of of Fame episode the second one of these right if you'll remember last time We took A long journey through the halls of what what do you what do you tell me said? I'm sure it made an indelible impact on you What where did we go last time in my tour of brands we did?

Sydney we did this is What, where did we go last time in my tour of brands? We did. Sydney? We did. This is Vipo Rob. Thank you. Yeah. So here's what it cursed me. We, a lot of us here in the States just had a Thanksgiving meal and maybe over-indulged in food stuffs is a common around.

Turkey, terrarious cast rolls, stuffing, all the potatoes, big, old mess of vegetables. Sweet potato casserole, my mom's our species, and he's nailed it. You guys got to come over and try it, it was the best. But what we are, what we would have reached for when we go over-indulged, well, that's right, said the one and only Alcasselcer. And it made me think about Alcasselcer is one

of those brands that would be perfect for this segment because it's almost more powerful as a brand than it is as a medicine. I like that. I don't wanna mess up your bit. No, thanks. But I like that you love brands so much. You feel such a loyalty to brands, like just brands as a concept.

Love brands. That you said that we reached for Alka Seltzer. We all. When we objectively did know. Yeah, we didn't, but it's like a bit. We don't own Alka Seltzer. We don't own Alka Sel. No, I don't. We own Smack Seltzer, the Harper and Relief Choose,

the ones that look like giant skittles. Yeah, okay, yeah. So we're gonna be talking about Alcasselzer and like I'm not as good at Sydney at this, so like bear with me, my friends. It's the holidays. You did a good job last time. Thank you, but that there's no indicator,

past performance is no indicator of future. I'm not as good at making jokes. So. Well, I think you're great at that. You made me laugh all the time. Okay, so listen, Alcaceltzer. This is like I said, folks, just hang in there with me. I'm doing my best. And I hope you enjoy this rocking tour of Alcaceltzer. So I want to take you back to 1884. We're in Indiana, which has a lot of medical ties. Remember when we were in Indianapolis, we did episode about Eli Lilly. So there's a big thriving medical business there. Medical. I don't know. Do you know? No, I don't. Okay. So I was really saying I wonder why. Dr. Franklin Miles, he opens up Dr. Miles Medical Company in Elkurt, Indiana.

Later, it changed the name to Miles Laboratories in 1935. One of the first products was a big success at Patent Medicine Tonic called Dr. Miles Nervine, which claimed to treat quote, nervousness or nervous exhaustion, sleeplessness, hysteria, headache, neuralgia, back pain, back ache, epilepsy, spasms, fits, and St. Vitus's dance. Wow. What's that last one? That's quite an array.

It's quite an array, isn't it? That's quite an array of things that it will cure. St. Vitus's dance. So, St. Vitus's dance. So St. Vitus's dance is actually, I usually think of it, or what I think most people would recognize it in medicine is Sidenham's Korea. It's the other name for it, but it was also referred to as St. Vitus's dance.

But it's like this, the reason it's called a dance is it's a bunch of sort of uncoordinated movements, like usually like jerking type movements, and it typically is associated with a childhood infection with strep, a childhood strep infection, and you can get this sort of autoimmune condition that results from it. So that's what it looks like a dance. So that's what it, but it looks like a dance. So that's related to. So this Dr. Miles Narvine became a big seller, allowed him to develop a sort of thriving

male order medicine business. And he's always looking for new products, new things to come out. Now this is, in 1928, so this is a good, I don't know, 40 years later, the company is still operating, is creating new drugs and coming up with new new products. Probably navigating the fact that like laws were being made

as to what you could put in drugs and what you had to tell people was in there. A wild West days of medicine were coming to a place. You could lie about what they do quite so openly. In 1928 there was a big flu epidemic, okay? Very severe flu epidemic. And a guy named Hubbeard's Leigh was running... Hubbeard's Leigh. Beard's Leigh. Beard's Leigh.

The only thing that someone with his name could do. Powerful name. Running a medical company in the 1920s. So he's the president of Oslabs and he hears this story about a, you're looking at the notes. Sorry. Look at me. Because if you're looking at the notes, you'll read ahead and then I'm going to be like, you'll be like, yeah, I read that five minutes ago. Okay, okay. Hubbeard's Lee. Hubbeard's Lee. Here's this story about a newspaper where the employees aren't getting sick. Okay.

The employees aren't getting sick with the flu. The severe flu is going around. So he actually travels there and he meets Tom Keane, who's the editor, who tells Beards of the Secret is that when the first sign of illness comes on, these employees took a mix of aspirin and baking soda and then didn't go afloat. Okay. Okay. Okay. So beardly goes back and he's like, what's up? My, my friends here at the chemical company where I work. I went to his chief chemist, Maurice Trineer. He says, listen, have you heard about the newspaper?

And he's like, yeah, we're all talking about it. And he's like, I need you to come up with a pill that is like this. Like, I want to sell this to people. And Maurice is like, absolutely. Or are you sure? Are you sure he first wasn't like, that's nothing? There's no way that's anything.

Yeah, that's nothing. He's like, that's interesting. Most of them get sexy. Oh. Let's get it sexier, that's nothing. He's like, that's interesting, but let's just think it's sexy. Oh. Let's get it sexier, right? Right. So what does he add in there? Citric acid.

Oh. So what we have then is citric acid and making soda, which when the water is introduced, when it's dropped into a thing, it fizzes up and makes effervescence, right? Was that just to make it cool? What? That means that was the only reason.

No. Just so it would look cool. No. It does effervescence, it's better. It is all quicker. Okay. And it's like better, because it feels good. The fizzing is good.

And. The fizzing is good? This isn't about the efficacy of oxalcer, which we can all agree is very good. No, I just think it's interesting that the fizz was only put in there. The fizz was not only put in there for that. The citric acid is, it aids in soothing your sour stomach because it's anhydrous. Aids in soothing a sour stomach is a very specific way of putting that

that doesn't actually claim any medical benefits and it makes me think, it makes me think that it was carefully chosen for that reason. Well, Sydney, I mean, everybody's allowed to be kind of a negative presence. Every party has a pooper and that's why we invited you. So CitroGrasse is great for the sour stomach and we can all agree it's great and helpful.

Okay, good. For whatever, whatever you deem a sour stomach. So in, Traneer works on these tablets, right? And he creates these ocacelter tablets. Yes. Beardsley is going on a cruise. Of course, hubbeardsley's going on a cruise. Of course, hubbeardsley.

It's the hubbeardsley family reunion cruise that he goes on. And I'm really getting ready like late 20s cruise, which I'm sure was just like debauch. Do you think you wore Central? Like a captain's hat? Oh, I'm so glad. His name was Hubbeard's League.

Not a lot of our captains had on a cruise. They throw you off for that, because there's an actual cap. There's no way they threw you off for that. They do. I'm trying to wear, no, they'll get you. There's no way that's true. Yeah, I suppose.

It's true. Can't wear captain's hat on a cruise. It's illegal. So Hubbeard's, he takes a, Mickey does it all the time on those Disney cru true. I can't wear cap and tattoo on Chris' legal. So Hubbeard's name takes a, Mickey does it all the time on those Disney cruises. I've seen it on TV. Hubbeard, well Mickey's the captain. Sydney, he pilots the boat while you're sleeping.

Listen, Hubbeard, you're distracting me. Hubbeard's leave. Well, she makes her turn. I know, it feels. Yeah. Hubbeard's name takes a hundred of these tablets. And anytime someone starts showing signs of illness, he's like, I gotta tablo it.

Now, this is the anecdote that I've seen repeated many, many times. This particular version was from Psychoal The Prisoner, the thing one, but like I've seen it repeated many times. But no one stops to really slow down and examine this, like, have you heard about the guy on the boat?

Yeah, wait, Hubbeard's Lee? Yes, I met him. He's just going person to person and asking how people are feeling. He's got a huge pocket full of tablets and he just passed the amount to anybody who feels sick. How is Hubbeard's Lee tracking who is ill on the boat? Does he just ask, is that like his conversation opener? So how you feel?

You never heard about anybody that's sick. The great cruise, huh? Yeah, yeah, you sick. You sick, you got the flu? 30, 1931 Alcatelcer is brought to the market. Right. February 21, 1931, which means it just celebrated it's 90th anniversary.

Goodness gracious. Now did they immediately come up with plot, plot, fizz, fizz? Or does this come later in the story? Oh, honey, we've talked about the medicine all we're going to. Uh-huh. The rest of this episode is going to be devoted to a thorough and loving examination of the ways in which Alka Celser has been marketed to the general public.

Now you say we're done talking about the medicine itself and maybe you'll get into this and if so, you can stop me. But does it change formulation? The current formulation is like slightly different. It's got, you know what, let me tell you. And you can tell me what the, so the active ingredients now, see, anhydrous citric acid,

which is an anacid. So it's not just a fizzing agent, aspirin and sodium bicarb. Okay. So it's the same stuff. Same stuff. Basically, I'm trying to. Wow. Now that's's the same stuff. Same stuff. Basically, unchained. Wow. Now, that's in the main formulation.

There is also, we'll talk about this a little bit later, but Alchzelz are gold, which is marketed without aspirin, because none of the tolerates aspirin. And there are other products too. We'll get there. We have a thrilling amount of ads. We're going to be listening to some ads, a little multimedia presentation for you. Oh, boy. Just to like, because some of these are such

classics. But that is the story of how it came to be. And after the break, we're going to tell you how we sell it. Well, then I guess it's time for me to say, let's go to the billing department. Let's go. The medicines, the medicines that I skilled at my cards for the mouth. Hello. I'm P.W. Herman. You might know me from TV, but I really want to be a DJ. It took some convincing. But KCRW finally agreed to give me an hour on the radio to play you some music with my friends!

Anyway, tune in for one hour of the bestest, most funnest time you'll ever have! On the Pee Wee Herm in Radio Hour, I am personally inviting you to tune your transistor radio into hear me or go to kcrw.com. It'll be available for the whole week from November 26th to December 3rd, so you can listen to it again and again and again and again and again. The P.W. Herman Radio Hour was produced by Maximum Fun and can be streamed on KCRW.com until December 3rd. Billion Department is appropriate in this case said because now it's all about money.

Very early on, Alcelser was marketed as this is going to surprise you. Kind of a cure all. Yeah, well, everything was back then. The brand in the earliest ads, the brand was suitable for it, says here, colds, headaches, gas on the stomach, sour stomach, simple neuralgia, muscular aches and pains, that tired feeling, the morning after feeling,

rheumatic fever and muscular limbic. That tired feeling. We're gonna get there actually. That's tired feeling. That does not, that is not a like thing that we'll leave in the 30s. As Gene Wilder will prove here in a little bit. Why would it, the first icon of advertising

in Alchicel's history. The first like real, and one of the like most lasting icons of marketing really from this period, came about in the late 50s, a guy named Speedy. Now he's originally named Sparky, created by George Powell of the Wade ad agency designed by Wally Wood, originally named Sparky created by George Powell of the Wade ad agency designed by Wally Wood. Originally named Sparky and then they changed to fit with the campaign of like speedy relief.

Speedy was in a series of ads with Buster Keaton, who was a very famous silent film star who had the kind of resurgence during this period. And basically, Buster Keaton would be some sort of employee of some sort who is suffering from some sort of fality and speedy would appear to help him through the trouble. Speedy has an alkyceltzer for a head and an oxylzer for a body, which if you think about it for more than five seconds is traveling. I mean, it doesn't. Like the tablet?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're gonna listen to one of these ads right now featuring Buster Keaton and Speedy. Pity the poor male man. Walk, walk, walk. No wonder he's so tired. Good thing this is his last letter. The house is driving away.

Uh-oh. What a spot. He's got an aching head and... Upset stomach. And an empty lot. What you need is some alkyceltzer. You know what they always say. Yeah. The male and much goes through Now yeah, it's rough it's a rough jingle. It doesn't who says the male must go through who says relief is just a swallow away. I mean, not anybody used to trust. Let's finish the yet. The sound of the stomach through, round, round, round, the system to, without the cellar, they always say, relief is just a swallow away.

Bless that relief giving alchiceltzer. That's what everybody says. With alchiceltzer, really missed just a swallow away. So that's Speedy as you can see he's on a Vespa. He's on a little Vespa. And that's what the mailman gets. The Vespa. The mailman gets a Vespa at the end and he's able to catch up with the house.

He was in over 200 ads that ran for over 10 years people really love that guy, huh? People love this people love this guy did they now this entire time did they go with the tagline Relief is just a swallow away. No, are you kidding? No, no speedy. Yes. That's absolutely So the was there nobody who was, are we sure about that? This was the earliest legacy of oxaltor advertising with Speedy. It was their first icon. He has returned periodically.

They were looking to spice things up in the early 60s and they found their new spokesperson in an up and coming actor named Gene Wilder. Can I just say real quick that I do appreciate that in that ad? They were like, it goes to your stomach and then the whole system. Trust us. The body, you know, the human system of body, the body of the system body. Don't get on that one, this specific.

It's just a whole day one Elka's ulcer invents a new disease the blas the blas is kind of like the blu is only physical it's when you're down in the dumps and you don't know a cold is working on you. It's when you're not feeling right, but you don't know what's wrong. It might be a headache on its way, a stomach ache on its way. The blas, who needs him. You know, we wouldn't have invented a disease unless we had something to take for it. Alcosals are, if Alcosals are can take care of real big upsets,

think of what it can do for a simple case of the Blas. Like, I just have to give credit to like the most solbona's ad. That is the that is wow. They just say it. They just say it. We invented a disease because we wanted to sell our our pills and we needed a disease for the pills. So we made a disease. They just say it. We just came right out and made made one. And I love this idea when you're when a cold's working

on you or maybe a headache is coming or maybe an upset. Like that's all the time though. Yeah. Like at any time, I guess I might get sick tomorrow. Yeah, but now you gotta care for that, for the blogs. I can't, we talk about the so much in medicine, like well, it's almost like they had to invent something because they made a pill and now they had to come up with something that the poll could work on. But they just say it. Yeah, they just come right on and say it.

Now, Gene was in another one called stomach fight, you can, we're not gonna listen to you right now because we don't have time, honestly, but you can go track it, track it down. I do love gene wilder. Gene Wilder is great. But too bad he got mixed up in all this. But there's a whole history of that. We've talked about Dolly Parton, who is beloved by all, including us, has gotten mixed up

in patent medicine sales before. Continually getting ads, the Alka Celts brand was continually refreshing and updating. Stop looking ahead. Please, Sydney. It makes me so nervous. Sorry, I'm just really excited. I won't do this to you anymore if this is how it makes you feel because I do read the notes too, but I'm not going to do it anymore.

One of the ad companies that they work with, the man, the man was Jack Tinker. Wait, Don Draper. No, not the real boundary. Jack Tinker and partners was one of the ad companies that they worked on. Jack Tinker. Jack Tinker. It's good, right?

Not hubbeardsley. Not hubbeardsley level, but still not bad. Hubbeardsley is a name that Dwight would make up. Yeah. I feel like if Dwight had to make up a character name, he would say, I'm hubbeard's lead. There's lots of different campaigns that Jack Tinker was working on. They created a whole series of ads. But the most notable one was was called Alka Seltzer on the rocks. And it was literally just, it wasn't actually like ice.

Well, that's what I was gonna ask. Are you supposed to put it in a glass? I didn't think you were supposed to put ice in the alcohol cell. But the idea was like, it would look like a, so they would have like a tumbler and it was the dropping it into the clear glass of water it's like looks refreshing.

You know what I mean? It's like, I could dive into that. Well, and I think it's always had this sort of connection in my mind to like hangovers or having too much to drink or something like that. I feel like you see that so many times in like movies and stuff, that classic image of the guy the next day, like in the office, like in the suit, looking all crumpley and feeling bad and he's plopping his alka seltzer so he can get through the day. So here's a story about Jack Tinker who was at Miles Laboratories and they were, you know, trying to get ideas for this campaign.

And this is a, I'm quoting here. So we met an attractive doctor at Miles Laboratories named Dorothy Carter. That's so like, why did we have to mention Dorothy Carter being attractive? What does that have to do with anything? Do you need me to explain it to you, Justin? Do you want me to explain it? I don't. I could explain it. I don't, but it's a make good because Dorothy will become important in this story very shortly. I-huh. Uh, I just wanted to take a quick detour over to check in on Dorothy staples who lived to the ripe old age of 104 years old. Wow.

Yeah. In New York, she was born in England, uh, got her medical degree, uh, worked at the, um, graduated from the Royal Free Medical School in 38 was a wartime mom of three children like during the war while she worked full-time as a corduroy obituary. She said, we told ourselves we had juggled so much that we were contributing to the war effort, the family moved to Argentina after the war. In 51, they to America, she got resertified and started working at Miles Laboratories where we will meet her very briefly.

Eventually she becomes the company's first woman vice president in 1963, as well as the first woman vice president of a pharmaceutical fortune, 500 company period. She traveled around, she loved to play tennis, she was a avid gardener. She lived 104 years old. She works. She continues to work as a consultant for miles for many years after this. So anyway, thank you, Dorothy Staples. Just wanted to take a quick, pick a stop. Hey.

Well, I think that's good since the way that Jack Tinker remembered her was an attractive doctor. Sure. So, okay. This is the quote, we meant attractive doctor who demonstrated to us that in order for aspirin to break through the pain barrier, it often required two aspirants, not one, to do the job. As aspirin is one of the ingredients to make alcohols, alcohols are effective.

We asked her if two alcohols would be better than Alcacelt's would be better than one. Yes, two would work better than one. But the directions in the package said to take only one, and all the old speedy commercials demonstrated only one fizzing in water. We did a little dance with Dorothy Carther in the laboratory. What a stroke of good fortune that was we changed the directions on the packages and began showing two alcohol silters dropping into a glass of water in every commercial. Miles created portable foil packs that held two alcohol silters each and sold them in new places.

Magazine stands, barge fast food restaurants, powder rams, they became ubiquitous and naturally Miles began selling twice as much alcohol. Now, that's somewhat apocryphal. The sales did not quite double, but they did increase quite a bit as a result of this change in the directions and how it was packaged. And it is just from that chance encounter with Dorothy Carter

who is the woman who is responsible for their being two-odd results in the package. And you know what's a shame is that what she did was explain the concept of a dose to that. I mean, that's what it was. It's just that you need to take the appropriate dose of something for it to work. If you don't take enough of it, it doesn't do anything.

She explained that. You got to wonder if the sales didn't also increase of it, it doesn't do anything. And she explained that. You got to wonder if the sales didn't also increase as much as like, well, now they're using twice as much, but also it may have been more effective. I mean, because aspirin is a real medicine that does things. So just like alcohol culture. Mm hmm. Well, I'm not saying it's not a real medicine.

I'm saying that it didn't work for all the things they said it would work for. I have to keep moving. It's not any there's too much to say. I'm just saying it's not a real medicine. I'm saying that it didn't work for all the things They said it would work for I have to keep moving It's not near this time. I'm just saying it might be more effective now I know you're taking enough aspirin for it to actually help with like a headache or whatever I know you look to talk about marketing brands, but I have to keep moving forward. I'm gonna get let me check my time Hold on. I didn't do the see this is why you do the little timer. See oh my gosh. I'm already okay 1969 there's an ad called Unfinished Lunch, which is, I can't,

the audio of it wouldn't do you any good. It is because it's in a prison lunch room. It's these guys all eating their lunch, their food. These guys finished their lunch and they start banging their mugs on the table and chanting this one guy does Alka Selzer Alka Selzer because he wants it and then the chant like goes throughout the whole Like prison lunch hall it's an actor named George raft

Who who played the played the role? And this commercial became so popular, their raft appeared as a guest on the tonight show, starting Johnny Carson, who informed him that the ad took more than seven hours to tape and it turned him into like a minor celebrity just from the strength of this ad. Did it work?

Do they get Alka Seltzer? And the... No, it's sort of like cliffhanger. Like, do they get it? Do they not? I mean, you have to hope they get Alka Seltzer. It's prison. They probably didn't give them Alka Seltzer. Yeah, I mean, that's for like cliffhanger. Like, do they get it, do they not? I mean, you have to hope they get oxalces. It's prison, they probably didn't give them oxalces.

Yeah, I mean, that's okay. Yeah, it's probably, well, it's an ad. So actually, they didn't get it or not get it because it's pretend, but I know what you are saying. The next big like landmark in a uh, in a oxalces of marketing history big like landmark in uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh This is weird. There was a music underneath this commercial

and a band called the T-bones, which was basically kind of from a mic until it's sort of like a manufactured studio band. Okay. Thought that they could have a hit with the song from the commercial. Yeah. So they released a single,

called no matter what shape your stomach is in based on the music from the commercial It was it a hit yeah his name's Dave Pell it was The the group that he manufactures called the tea bird. Let me turn this one go ahead and turn this on so we can start Did it become a hit? Well it did Sydney. The single spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 reaching number 3. While reaching number 1 on Canada's RPM play sheet, the album spent 7 weeks on Billboard's I'm billboards chopper chart top LPs and it was just some studio musicians Music no lyrics nope well, there's some a's here I hear some a's

So that is no matter what shape you're still In which is wild that it became a big single big hit single it kind of a Bob. It's kind of a bot No, I don't shape your stomach is in. Let's say is it chain let me see if it changes much oh it you change I mean don't get me wrong it doesn't make me want to take out because cells are necessarily but it's groovy it's groovy. It's Groovy, right? Groovy. Very Groovy. Okay. So that's no matter what shape your stomach is in, another big hit campaign.

And then we get into this unbelievable, I mean, this is already part of like an unbelievable run for ourselves, our advertising, right? The next big one is in the like very early 70s. And the Mary Wells agency gets the outsells or campaign. They have a they call a guy name how how we co in who they say, Hey, we're doing outsells and he's like, that's amazing. He said, they say, you're not the the guy who's doing the campaign. He's like, okay, so where we like the backup. And they said, well, no, we're getting to these other guys. You're the backup for the backup. The first two campaigns though, Sydney, they fail.

And it falls to how we Cohen, who says, okay, I got an idea for the ad. I think I know what it could be. And it is a, you will see a gentleman sitting in a cafe and we will hear the following advertisement. Drawing on a phrase that his mother used to say to him all the time, he comes up with this campaign called Try It, You'll Like It. Came to this little place, Wait a Says, Try This, You like it. What's this? Try it. You like it. But what is trying? You like it. So I tried it. Thought I was going to die to two alchicels. Alchicels are neutralizes all the acid your stomach is turned out. For your upset stomach and headache, take out the salsa and feel better fast.

How can salsa works? Try it. You'll like it. This ad is massive. It's massively successful. People adore Triat You'll like it. It is another like- Was everybody really bored? People were really bored back then. It's it. Okay, but this isn't even the wildest thing. How he co-incrushes it with Tried You Like It. Then he is at a wrap party for the Tried You Like It campaign, right, like everybody's celebrating and they have all this food there at the wrap party, right? Ice cream and lobster and cookies and cake,

all this amazing soup. Soup, all the soups, because she swore all the soups. Chicken noodle.ore all the soups chicken noodle mutton chicken noodle everything potato Sydney I'm trying to do a podcast so he stuffs himself gets completely full yeah okay he sits back in his chair and you know what he says what I can't believe I ate that whole thing. You ate it, Ralph. I can't believe I ate that whole thing. No, Ralph. I ate it. I can't believe I ate that whole thing.

Take two alkycelts, sir. Alkycelts are neutralizes. All the acid your stomach is churned out. For your upset stomach and headache, take alkyceltzer and feel better fast. Did you drink your alchiceltzer? The whole thing.

That's right. He went directly into, I can't believe I ate that whole thing. I don't know that I knew that was an alchiceltzer ad. Yeah. And now I won't share it with you all. You can find it on your own, but this ad was so popular. It was remade verbatim by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, the parents from everybody loves to.

Really? That's how popular this ad was. I don't. They're still saying that Algaselter neutralizes all of the acid in your stomach. That would be bad, right? Yeah, well, you need some stomach acid. Some stomach acid.

Okay, now this is where this, these histories, by the way, are hard to put together when it's so successful and like, there's a lot of people who have like a hand on the ball and everybody wants to be like, oh, I'm the guy. You know, or I'm the lady. I'm the one who came up with this. But this story.

I'm the lady, frequent thing that ladies say. I'm the lady. I'm the lady. But this is as close as I can get to the truth on this, in the mid-50s, Paul Margulese, who is the father of actress Juliana Margulese. Oh yeah. I like her.

That's more stunning than you gave it, quite a four, but okay, in the mid-50s, he creates a jingle, plot, plot, fizz, fop, Plop Fizz Fizz. Everyone agrees that he created this campaign in this jingle in the 50s. Yes. They didn't use it for 20 years. Why?

Nobody knows, but he created this in the mid-50s, the jingle. And then the full jingle is created by a guy named Tom Dawes, who was in a group called the Circle, which was another group at the time. But it wasn't until, as old as that sound, it wasn't until the mid-70s that this ad would actually, like this jingle would actually be used in an ad, as wild as that is. We didn't see it until then.

This ubiquitous jingle that was created in the 50s by Julianne Margulies, this bad, and it was also before they started selling it in a two pack. So I have no explanation folks. You tell me that was why I didn't work. Maybe. Before.

The beer and the burgers, the light and the noise. We used to hear with the boys. Oh, come, come, this, this, oh, what a ring bit is. Come, come, this, this, oh, what a ring bit is. Ah, those lovely bubbles for eggs and pans with upset stomach out this sorts of works. Passes, oh, what a ring bit. things without systemic out-of-the-sults who works. Fast, all underneath. Presenting to Justin Frank, how the selves are grown. Man, and I can just feel that a young Tommy Smirl watching this commercial and thinking,

I'm going to sing that to my children someday over and over and over again. How big was this? How big and beloved was plotot Plot Fizz Fizz? [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC [♪ The live, living like that means something's got to give I got to get myself out of the seltzer Past the spot Plop, this is it Ooh, what a relief it is A lot of people sing about indigestion anymore, you know?

Certainly, yeah, sit Listen to that build. Tell them, Sammy. All right. He's rocking by Alton Shelton. Yeah. Yeah, Sammy Davis, Jim,

Plop, Plop, Fizz Fizz in the UK. That jingle is Plink, Plink Fizz Fizz. I think that's more sonically pleasant. I always thought Plopplop was kind of yucky. Fair. So that's Plopplop Fizz Fizz. The... Sammy did it.

If you don't happen to have one of the many illnesses that oxalicis are good for, which is minor aches and pains and acid indigestion, you can use it for other purposes around your house, according to several different websites. Now I am not endorsing the efficacy of any of these because that is way outside Solbund's land. I'm already outside my lane by doing this, but going even further than that, I have no idea. But reportedly, you can use it to clean a toilet. You can melt it down in cup of water

and then put it on an insect bite. I'm gonna scut baking soda in it. Yeah, cleaning pots and pans. You can do an alcohol-seltzer and a glass, and then leave it in your fridge, and all the ddozer-ddozer-fridge. You can use it to descalate your coffee pot. You can use it to clean your jewelry. You can use it to whiten your laundry. I actually wouldn't put it on your skin like that. I wouldn't because it does

have aspirin in it. Like you could absorb that. So depending on what size the person it like, is this a kid? You know what I mean? Well, just for point of reference, salicylic acid paste, like aspirin paste, are something that are sometimes used in folk medicine. Like, I see that around here that these parts, in these parts, and it can be dangerous. It had, and I've seen people with toxicity from it. So these days, alcohol cell, the brand is expanded, I would say.

There's still the tablets in lemon lime, cherry, and original. The treating, the same stuff they always say they've treated. There's the heartburn relief shoes. Well, a lot less than they used to say, I would say, probably. Which are like giant, like I said, the giant skittles, there's oxalic are plus, which has other active ingredients to treat, like, flus- Like, cold and flus- Oh, yeah.

You're kind of classic. And, and de-conjessions and stuff. Sort of stuff that you find in a lot of those combo cold pills. There's also just like pills that say oxalic are on them that aren't even the plop plop food fist stuff. Paramax gels and day night outsells are gone. And gum. There's gum for harboring relief and you know gummies for the kids that got everything out of the seltzer. So it's still an extreme powerful brand. It is owned by a bear at this point. It is the entire, the miles laboratory.

So it's still doing, I mean, I assume it's doing fine. It's out there, we're all aware of it. So I assume it must do well, but it's weird because the two things that it does, which I mean, it has active ingredient in a Senate that can do those things. So I'm not gonna say, obviously, it is not fake in that sense. We talk a lot about old patent medicines

that were sort of fake or the idea of a cough drop that's really just sugar, not all are, but some are. Anyway, my point is there are medicines that help with acid reflux, heartburn, indigestion, those sorts of things, and there are medicines that help with minor aches and pains. And I would even go so far as to say, there are probably medicines that do either one of those things better than this combo. So it seems kind of odd to me, like just from a purely like clinical standpoint

that people would still reach for the algo cell tour over any of these other things. I think there are many things you and I take for these ailments and I would not replace them without cell tour. These numbers are not like, I don't have these numbers, but if I had to get a lens and I would not replace them without caceltzer. These numbers are not like I don't have these numbers but if I had to guess I would guess that the effervescent classic acocelter is much less popular.

I don't know hardly any but like I don't think I've ever seen like I don't think I've seen someone use it in a very long time. No, well not even like it like my parents didn't growing up use a lot of acocelter. But maybe my grandparents did I don't know. Not even like, like my parents didn't growing up, use a lot of alkyceltzer. But maybe my grandparents did, I don't know. But I think that's why you see alkyceltzer applied to all these other medicines, right? Because it's more powerful as a brand than as a medicine,

which is like what I was saying from before. The work of these ads was so effective that it actually gave more power to the name alkyceltzer than it did to the medicine itself. So we'll see it on things that have nothing to do with the Plot Plot Fizz Fizz, because that's the, you know, even the pills have a picture of the Plot Plot Fizz on it.

Like it, it is true. But you know, it's like that is the brand. And our past Fizz. That is Alchicelter, one of our icons of advertising. Thank you so much for all the great ads. Justin's icons of my solbons is Well, kind of your personal this is sort of your personal interest So thank you so much for listening thanks to the taxpayers for the use of their some medicines as the intro and outro program

Thank you Justin for doing all this hard work and teaching us about aquacelter. Uh, no problem said is the least that I could do. Um, that is, uh, that's going to do it for us. So until next time, any majorest of macro. I'm Sydney McRoy. And as always, don't drill a hole in your head. Alright! comedy and culture. Artist-owned? Audience-supported.