The Birth Of Aspirin

THE FOLLOWING IS AN UPDATED ENCORE TIM MOORE BLOG:

It was called a “miracle drug”, curing everything from headaches to cramps to pain in all areas of the body. Aspirin was patented almost exactly 112 years ago—March 6,1899. A German company called Bayer gave it the name we know today—instead of its chemical name: acetylsalicylic acid (yummy!). It was originally derived from the bark of the willow tree-REALLY! While the makers of aspirin were obviously pretty good at the medicine thing, they were a bit naive when it came to patents and trademarks.

When the original patent expired after World War I, they had not protected the name “Aspirin”---and so every other drug company produced and marketed the drug under the same name-rendering it a GENERIC name instead of the BRAND that Bayer would have obviously preferred. It’s as if the original ibuprofen patent ran out and everyone started calling their product Advil. Not happening! Just ask the makers of Motrin, who originally developed the drug as a prescription medicine, but were beaten to the market by Advil, which blitzed the public with advertising as the drug became an over-the-counter medication!

Below is a TV commercial from the 1960’s for Bayer aspirin-very entertaining!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGOFMXGZapU

Here’s a cute one for Bayer Children’s Aspirin:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRRq-dLWGtU&feature=related

Now, here’s an amusing one for Bayer’s competitor, Anacin. Woman yelling at her child parallels Anacin’s desperation to overtake Bayer’s market share, which they never did:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgLmqNBqFSU&NR=1


All this talk about drugs is giving me a headache! If you’d like my blog in your e-mail box daily, just let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com