Joseph
September 24th, 2008, 09:53
Ran into this article and I found it to be quite interesting. Really hits home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil
(BTW- The date was 9/23/08 when I found this. Wikipedia's always evolving you know...)
Especially:
Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for compounds offered as medicines which implies that they are fake, fraudulent, quackish, or ineffective. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.
...
The snake oil peddler became a stock character in Western movies: a travelling "doctor" with dubious credentials, selling some medicine (such as snake oil) with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence, typically bogus. To enhance sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a "shill") would often "attest" the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" would prudently leave town before his customers realized that they had been cheated. This practice is also called "grifting" and its practitioners "grifters".
The practice of selling dubious remedies for real (or imagined) ailments still occurs today, albeit with some updated marketing techniques. Claims of cures for chronic diseases (for example, diabetes mellitus), for which there are reputedly only symptomatic treatments available from mainstream medicine, are especially common. The term snake oil peddling is used as a derogatory term to describe such practices.
Anybody know a few snake oil salesmen? Grifters and/or shills?
HAH!
Thought you guys might enjoy it...
*edit*
Also of possible relevance...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil
(BTW- The date was 9/23/08 when I found this. Wikipedia's always evolving you know...)
Especially:
Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for compounds offered as medicines which implies that they are fake, fraudulent, quackish, or ineffective. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.
...
The snake oil peddler became a stock character in Western movies: a travelling "doctor" with dubious credentials, selling some medicine (such as snake oil) with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence, typically bogus. To enhance sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a "shill") would often "attest" the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" would prudently leave town before his customers realized that they had been cheated. This practice is also called "grifting" and its practitioners "grifters".
The practice of selling dubious remedies for real (or imagined) ailments still occurs today, albeit with some updated marketing techniques. Claims of cures for chronic diseases (for example, diabetes mellitus), for which there are reputedly only symptomatic treatments available from mainstream medicine, are especially common. The term snake oil peddling is used as a derogatory term to describe such practices.
Anybody know a few snake oil salesmen? Grifters and/or shills?
HAH!
Thought you guys might enjoy it...
*edit*
Also of possible relevance...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience