Mark L. Plummer on "The Aspirin Wars."
Writer Mark L. Pummer, co-author (with Charles Mann) of "The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition." The book traces the history of aspirin from its discovery in Germany in 1897. Eventually it spread overseas and the competition began. Because all aspirins are essentially identical, companies had to use marketing and advertising to promote their product as better than another. "The Aspirin Wars," is a "history of the mixture of marketing, litigation, technology and reluctant competition that characterizes so much of business...in this century." (published by Knopf).
Other segments from the episode on November 18, 1991
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