Ready for another installment of Timewarp Tuesdays and some IN YOUR FACE insult marketing?
What I love most about this 1906 ad from LD Caulk (now part of Dentsply) is how it trash-talks the competition while at the same time not really quantifying why their amalgamated alloy is better. Theirs is better why? Because they say so. Because they have “delicate laboratory instruments” and “full scientific equipment.
One other thing that’s interesting, try looking at Google Maps to see what is now built at the SE corner of Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philly. That’s some prime real estate, one block from Penn Square downtown.
Apparently their product was worthy enough to help Caulk amass a small fortune and survive until the present day so we can’t totally dismiss the claims as bogus. Then again, alloy itself has made it into the 21st century, but not without a fight, what with mercury fears and the demand for tooth-colored restorations.
The next time you see a 50-year old amalgam in a patient’s mouth, you can thank turn-of-the-century tech for recognizing that expansion and contraction have always been the bane of alloys, and that filling you’re seeing is proof of Caulk’s “knowledge and accuracy” 50 years later. So 100 years of success- that ain’t a bad track record.
And one more takeaway? Carpet-bagging still exists, only today when you “get what you pay for” we call it dabbling in the grey market.
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