Snake Oil
A term used to describe deceptive marketing, or a placebo medication that is advertised as a 'cure-all' product (sold by a 'Snake Oil Salesman') but in fact is either completely inert, or even harmful (not least of which due to the price paid to the unfortunate purchaser.
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Origin
The term traces to 19th-century American medicine shows, where vendors sold preparations loosely derived from Chinese laborers' use of water-snake oil as a cure-all. Clark Stanley, a self-styled "Rattlesnake King," cemented the phrase as a byword for fraud after his theatrical demonstrations at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. When federal agents seized his product in 1917, analysis found no snake oil at all — only mineral oil, beef fat, and turpentine.
Updated February 22, 2026