Alternative theapy - The Greatest Slogan and Marketing Innovation In History

“Have you been taking your vitamins lately?"

Slogan attrubuted to Henry Sell

In the late 1930s, Henry Blackman Sell (1889-1974) – a Chicago-based glove salesman, president of his own marketing agency, CEO of a food processing company, inventor of Sell’s Liver Pate, and at various times editor of Harper’s Bazaar and Town and Country – commercialized marketing of vitamins on a massive scale with the slogan, “Have you been taking your vitamins lately?” His name “Sell” matched his marketing genius perfectly.

It was a stroke of marketing genius. After all, even though vitamins might not help your health, they can’t hurt and they might just help. They are cheap and don’t require a prescription. Besides, you can use them to treat yourself. They are the ultimate in feel-good care.

In any event, ever since I read a biography of Henry Sell, “A Talent for Living: The Story of Henry Sell, An American Original (1970)," I have suspected that vitamins are a product of salesmanship rather than an adjunct to good health.
A February 16 New York Times article, "Vitamin Pills: A False Hope?” confirms my suspicions.

It reports several recent high quality studies failed to show extra vitamins in pill form did not prevent disease or prolong life. Studies of 161,000 older women and 15, 000 of male physicians showed no differences in rates of cancer or heart disease.

But will these studies deter buying or consuming of extra vitamins in pills, foods, or various dietary supplements? I have to stop now. It’s time for daily multivit. My wife reminds me I haven’t been taking them lately.

Have you taken your vitamins lately?

No? Don't be a Johnny-come-lately.

Seize the bottle by the cap.

Unscrew it like a good chap.

The vitamin maker will appreciate it greatly.