An email sent out by the venerable Dr. Bonkers:
The Institute for Nearly Genuine Research announces two exciting new additions to our Marvelous Mental Medicine Show online gallery of psychiatric drug advertising. One is a 7-page ad for Ritalin; the other is a 9-page ad for Cylert. Both advertisements sell the idea that Minimal Brain Dysfunction is a child disease to be treated with stimulant medication.
In each case, we’ve compressed a multi-page ad into a single image, so our web page takes a few seconds to download, but it’s worth the wait. These vintage ads are classic examples of Big Pharma disease-mongering at its finest.
Step right up! See the birth of a discrete disease entity before your very eyes!
1970 Ritalin advertisement: The mean child who doesn’t mean it.