medicine show
Snake oil spectacle
A medicine show was a traveling entertainment in 19th and early 20th century America that used music, comedy, and spectacle to draw crowds, then pitched dubious patent medicines and cure-alls.
The term now describes any presentation that uses flashy distraction to sell something of questionable value: His campaign speech was pure medicine show.
- travellingMoving from place to place
- elixirMythical healing draught
- pitchmanPersuasive product demonstrator
- traveling salesmanItinerant commercial representative
- snake oil salesmanFraudulent remedy peddler
remedy · bottle · charlatan · snake oil · barker · tent · peddling · itinerant · quackery · wagon · crowd psychology · curative · frontier towns · vendor · miracle cures · nostrum · tonic · magic
- old-fashionedantique, antiques, gramophone, phonograph, horse and buggy
- traveling showstraveling troupe, roadshow, circus, vaudeville, sideshow
- Patent Medicinesnake oil, cure-all, nostrum, elixir, panacea
- Victorian entertainmentvaudeville, music hall, pantomime, melodrama, burlesque
- pastimeshobbies, amusement, puzzles, cards, crafting
- Old Westcowboy, cowboys, cowgirl, sheriff, sheriffs
medicine showevidence-based medicine
Clinical care guided by research
clinical trial · medical practice · clinical medicine · prescription medication
medicine showpharmacy
Medicinal dispensary
hospital · medical clinic · doctor's office · teaching hospital · research institution
medicine showinformed consent
Permission given with understanding
medical journal · peer review · plain dealing · straight talk
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