Lectures on Tap - A History of Medical Marketing: Snake Oil, Drugs, & More

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🧠 Lecture: "A History of Medical Marketing: Snake Oil, Drugs, & More"

🎤 Speaker: Patrick Kelly

Join us for a fascinating evening as Patrick Kelly unpacks how American medicine turned into a marketing powerhouse. America is one of only two countries in the world that allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers—but how did we get here?

This talk explores the contentious history of medical marketing in the US: from colonial apothecary ads and notorious snake oil grifters, to the era when pharma stopped talking to patients and focused on wooing doctors instead, and finally to the regulatory battles that put drug ads on your TV screen and in your social media feed. Throughout, we’ll return to a recurring debate: how much should patients really know?

Patrick Kelly is a teacher and science writer known for his educational videos about the history of medicine. His YouTube channel, one of the largest in the medical history niche, has 150,000 subscribers and over 10 million views.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.

Event Venue

Nob Hill, Nob Hill, San Francisco, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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