Carbolic Smoke Ball cold remedy ad, 1890
The pattern
This still is filed under Risk reversal.
Define
The cost of being wrong moves from the buyer to the seller. The buyer can try. The seller eats the failure.
Mechanism
Inverse risk. A trial, a refund, a pay-after-it-works clause. Distinct from a guarantee stack: here the whole bet is flipped, not itemized.
Verdict
The main objection is what if it does not work for me
Why it works
Two devices carry it. 'FREE TRIALS' with a London address sits above the product name, so the reader can test the ball before paying anything, and under the picture a dense roll of marchionesses, countesses, earls and two physicians to the Queen follows 'This Infallible Remedy is Used by'. The right-hand column then lists ailment after ailment, from colds to headache, so every reader finds their own.
The big idea
A remedy used by a long roll of titled Britons and royal physicians will positively cure colds and a column of other ailments, and anyone can try it free.
The offer
Free trials of the Carbolic Smoke Ball at 27, Princes Street, Hanover Square, London, W.
The proof
A named roll under 'This Infallible Remedy is Used by': marchionesses, countesses, earls, baronets, and two physicians to the Queen and her household.
Lines from the ad
THE CARBOLIC SMOKE BALL WILL POSITIVELY CURE COLDSFREE TRIALS AT 27, PRINCES STREET, HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.This Infallible Remedy is Used bySteal this when
When your product is new and doubted, and you can let people try it free in person while showing a long list of named users the reader looks up to.
The emotion
Written to Hope. It makes the Avoid mistake.
'Will positively cure colds' and 'This Infallible Remedy' promise a sure cure for colds and a column of other ailments, backed by titled names rather than any evidence of what a typical user gets.
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