1717 Anodyne Necklace for Teething Children

The purported inventor of the Anodyne Necklace, Paul Chamberlen claimed that the necklace would help children’s teeth as well as woman’s labor. It is no shock that children during the eighteenth century often died as infants, and as many times during infancy the baby is teething, it may have seemed natural that the teething itself was the source of illness and death. The Anodyne Necklace was invented to simply place around a baby’s neck to prevent infant death during teething. Chamberlen deserves the last place on this list for preying and capitalizing on the grief and terror of parents who were more often than not during this period resigned to the fact that their children would be more likely to die in infancy than to make it to adulthood.

1747 Dr. Newman's Famous Anti-Venereal Pill

From the Penny London Post, Jan 2 1747
This ad promised to cure venereal diseases in such a way that " your relations, nay your bedfellow, shall ever suspect you are out of order."

1885 Allen's Cocaine Tablets

And to think that I have to show my license to buy Advil Cold and Sinus because it contains pseudophedrine.  Anyone living in 1885 could have cured their sinus troubles with cocaine, though mail order or over the counter.

1908 Moxie

The book Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains, by Anne Cooper Funderburg, explains the meaning of this ad, "Learn to Drink Moxie."

Moxie began life as a tonic that promised to cure anything from paralysis to nervous exhaustion.  In 1884 Moxie was sold in bottles and in bulk as soda fountain syrup.  The secret ingredient, the gentian plant, was said to sometimes taste like turnips, and resembled asparagus or milkweed.  The new marketing strategy promoted Moxie as "a delicious blend of the bitter and the sweet, a drink to satisfy everyone's tastes."  Moxie's unusual flavor was an acquired taste; advertisements urged consumers to "learn to drink Moxie" and turned it's bitterness into a virtue by boasting that it was "never sticky sweet."  Moxie-flavored lollipops were given to children to help them learn to like it.  In this ad, it states that the drink is sold by all temperance beverage sellers.