Controversial Products
When English settlers set up colonies in North America, tobacco was a major herb for many Native Americans, but they used it differently than the Europeans.
Indigenous people used tobacco as a medicinal aid in several ways. For instance, to disinfect cuts, relieve pain, and alleviate congested lungs and bronchial asthma.
Smoking cigarettes was considered improper, resulting in deadly consequences, according to the Traditional Native American Tobacco Seed Bank and Education Program.
Coffee shops were popular in urban areas of Northern Europe in the 17th century. However, if you’d opened a coffee shop near FBI headquarters, during the reign of Director J. Edgar Hoover, 1935 to 1971, hoping to get a stream of agents as customers, you’d have been in for an unpleasant jolt. Under strict orders from the bureau’s director, FBI agents were not allowed to drink the potent elixir. Church groups and John Kellogg, the cereal inventor, railed against the evils of coffee drinking during the 1900’s.
Lesson: Controversy does not always doom a product.
References
http://www.tobacco.org/Misc/tnat.html
http://www.www.booktv.org/Program/1791/The+FBI+Inside+the+Worlds+Most+Powerful+Law+Enforcement+Agency.aspx
7/7/2011 Comment
Sal Spadaccino wrote:
very interesting article- as all of yours have been- real eye opening- especially with the simplicity – thanks, SAL
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