Snake oil - Wikipedia
Snake oil is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, health care fraud, or a scam. Similarly, snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. [1] .
How Snake Oil Became a Symbol of Fraud and Deception
2024年10月21日 · In our modern-day vernacular, we can use “snake oil” to describe almost anything deceptively branded as a legitimate solution to a problem that ultimately doesn’t live up to its promise. At the...
A History Of 'Snake Oil Salesmen' : Code Switch : NPR
2013年8月26日 · Among the items the Chinese railroad workers brought with them to the States were various medicines — including snake oil. Made from the oil of the Chinese water snake, which is rich in the...
The Serpentine Story of Snake Oil, Or How I Came to Buy Snake Oil …
2015年8月19日 · Snake oil has long been regarded, both literally and figuratively, as a product that promises the world but delivers nothing. If you’re getting sold snake oil, you’re getting fleeced by a...
Snake oil is no balm for America - National Museum of American …
2009年11月19日 · There is no shortage of snake oil in America. Whether sold by politicians as endless campaign promises, or by spammers tempting us with virility enhancers and other elixirs of life, we are all too familiar with snake oil and its salesmen. What America needs is …
Is 'Snake Oil' Really from Snakes? - Merriam-Webster
Be careful what you rub on your skin, drop in your eyes, or drink down. It could be snake oil! Today that term merely refers to fake medicinal products or general poppycock, but go back far enough and people were rubbing real snake oil in their eyes.
Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something - Scientific American
2007年11月1日 · One of the most common cure-alls was snake oil, and its less than sterling efficacy soon lent its name as a generic to all such fraudulent hoaxes. The epithet endures: A quick search for...
The history of snake oil - The Pharmaceutical Journal
2021年2月12日 · In 1915 the US government ordered the analysis of a well-known product, Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment. The analyst found that its main constituents were “a light mineral oil (petroleum product) mixed with about 1 per cent of fatty oil (probably beef fat), capsicum, and possibly a trace of camphor and turpentine”.
How fears of electromagnetic radiation spawned a snake-oil …
2022年5月17日 · “Snake oil” products claiming to protect humans from radio waves became common as fears of radiofrequency radiation grew throughout the 20th century.
The Real Story of Snake Oil - Consumer Reports
2024年8月15日 · The medical cure-alls that snake oil salesmen made in the 1800’s were outrageous, fantastic and fake! Here’s how it all started.