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Media, Not Manual Labor

By Chip Kessler

John Brinkley’s introduction to the lucrative opportunities in selling patent medicines was observing the traveling medicine shows, with charismatic pitchmen who called themselves doctors but made their money as salesmen. Most real physicians set up shop and built practices, or in some cases, multi-doctor clinics, almost entirely by word of mouth referrals. He followed these models at first, but very quickly gravitated toward means of getting his message out to many more people at a faster pace.

Dr. John Brinkley also realized that the very nature of his “miracle cure” for male sexual dysfunction would be a subject of intrigue, skepticism and curiosity. He understood that the average person would be curious about it, and most importantly the average person would want to know more about the man behind this revolutionary and controversial process. To use this as leverage, he devised a strategy that has, in contemporary times, been copied by a great many individuals manufacturing fame: not writing a book, but having a book written about him. There were two of these books:

The Life of a Man by Clement Wood

This was a ghostwritten saga with the Brinkley heavily involved in the development of the manuscript behind the scenes.

A Tribute to Dr. John R. Brinkley… the man without parallel

The author of the second book was so enamored and reverent towards the good Doctor that he didn’t feel worthy enough to give himself a writer’s credit. The opening paragraph of the book reads as follows, “Good evening ladies and gentlemen-boys and girls! I come to you tonight to pay tribute to Dr. John R. Brinkley, a “Man without a Parallel.” Of course most of you know of Dr. Brinkley and I am a stranger to you, but I speak not of Dr. Brinkley the great doctor, but of Dr. Brinkley the noble man.

These books were promoted aggressively, as objective reports on a prominent leader in the field of medicine, and they presented Brinkley as a man on a mission, a daring innovator, and a humanitarian. If you stop to think about it, the very fact that a book has been written about you and published for public consumption means you must be important! Even people who had never before heard of Dr. John Brinkley or his transformative surgical procedures knew instantly that he was an important, interesting person and significant figure they should know about, because a book about him had been published.

Use of this unusual strategy did not stop Brinkley from also positioning himself as an author. He self-published Dr. Brinkley’s Doctor Book, and advertised and sold it for $1.00 a copy—a significant sum in his day.

The books built the credibility and fame of Dr. Brinkley, but, by far, his biggest breakthrough came from the then young medium of radio, beginning with KFKB-Milford, Kansas, “the Sunshine Station in the Heart of the Nation.”

Which Media Offers The Best Breakthrough Opportunity FOR YOU?

As the Brinkley name grew, the Brinkley personal magnetism that had worked so well in one-on-one “consultations” with prospective patients would be effective in the most personal of all advertising media, radio. Unlike printed matter, requiring the prospective patient to actively read, thus sacrificing control of tone to the reader, radio enabled Dr. Brinkley to multiply himself, yet still connect one to one, using his trained voice, voice inflections, dramatic pauses and persuasive speaking style just as he had as a medicine show pitchman. Sitting next to his radio, in the comfort of his or her home, a listener could experience the medical wisdom of Dr. John R. Brinkley through his series of medical talks. Of course, just being on the radio gave Brinkley authority, credibility and importance. He was ingenious enough not to run straightforward commercials, but instead to host programs, provide helpful information, and deliver ‘fireside chats’ about health issues.

The power of radio was immediately evident to John Brinkley, and his ambition naturally escalated. Brinkley didn’t just want to be on the radio, he wanted to own a radio station. After all, was there a faster means to add to one’s growing authority than to be able to call the shots and be on the air as often as he desired? If he owned his own radio station, he would be able to appear when he pleased to espouse on whatever medical mystery, illness, or disease was out there worthy for his opinion and expertise. Yet even Brinkley, the master marketer of all things realized that wall-to-wall medical discussion, no matter how informative, was not the best means to make his business grow. As mentioned earlier in the book, a Brinkley knows how to “give the people what they want” and in the case of KFKB, this meant first-class musical entertainment. His clever goal was to make his chats stand out amidst a sea of other programming that was attractive to listeners.

As a result, Dr. John R. Brinkley physician and surgeon would also become John R. Brinkley radio program director. He searched the nation far and wide for musical talent, focusing more on the down-home country, folksy style that would be a good match for his personal talent for delivering down-home, folksy, from the heart medical advice. Brinkley acquired a station, created a live music format, and invested mind-boggling sums in bringing entertainers to Milford, Kansas to perform live in his studio. The radio stars that appeared included champion fiddle player Uncle Bob Larkin, Patsy Montana, Red Foley, Gene Autry and Jimmie Rodgers, plus a host of young and upcoming talent that Brinkley was proud to have discovered.

Brinkley would eventually sell KFKB, but not until it had become one of the most popular radio stations in the state of Kansas. At the time of the sale, Brinkley was so popular and what he had to say on the medical subjects of the day so respected that he continued his radio broadcasts under the new ownership, as a legitimized broadcast personality.

A footnote here to Dr. John R. Brinkley’s role in radio is that he saw it as such a viable medium for delivering his marketing message that later during his career, when he moved to Del Rio, Texas, and then on to Little Rock, Arkansas, Brinkley made it a point to own radio stations in both locales, the Del Rio operation actually across the boarder in Mexico. One other point of interest: among the acts that Brinkley championed during his radio programmer stints was the “Original Carter Family” a group that would become one of the leading clans in country music. Among the Carter off-spring, a daughter named June who joined the act at a young age and would go on later in life to marry an up and coming country entertainer by the name of Johnny Cash. The “Man in Black” said that he had first heard June sing over the airwaves on a Brinkley radio station.

Not content with the medium of radio, Brinkley also tapped into the film genre producing a short feature film, to be shown in movie theaters: The Story of Paw and Maw.

This cautionary story tells the tale of a man named Paw who is suffering from an “ailment.” He goes and visits his regular local doctor but the trip doesn’t cure him of his problem. Still on the lookout for some relief, Paw next goes to see his local druggist and begins taking a lot of medicine. Sadly the medication doesn’t do him any good, so Paw again treks back to his regular physician. The doctor decides that Paw needs an operation. Unfortunately the surgery doesn’t cure Paw. In fact the surgery kills him.

As the story unfolds, the viewer sees what Paw should have done:

In its time, John Brinkley’s ambitious media strategy went far beyond what any other promoters of medical care or products—or just about anything else—imagined, but today, we see many entrepreneurs, authors and others using their own radio programs, bought and paid for in many cases; their own books and books they arrange to have written about them; their own magazines and newsletters. There is, of course, a vast array of online media available, so that, in a sense, you can own your own radio station, produce and broadcast your own short films (think: YouTube) as well as full-length webinars, and otherwise produce and deliver programming that demonstrates your expertise and attracts customers.

The Brinkley blueprint for savvy use of media had three parts:

1: Multiplying himself via EVERY available media

2: By doing so, gaining “multi-media reinforcement”

3: Finding and focusing on THE medium best suited to him and his purposes

Cover and first page of the “Tribute Book. “ (The entire book is included along with other samples of Dr. Brinkley literature in the complete Home Study Course available at www.ChipKessler.com)

©2009/KansasMemory.org Kansas State Historical Society. Reprinted with permission.

Cover, inside front cover, a text page (page 4) and diagram page (page 5) of “The Dr. Book. “ (The entire book is included along with other samples of Dr. Brinkley literature in the complete Home Study Course available at www.ChipKessler.com)

©2009/KansasMemory.org Kansas State Historical Society. Reprinted with permission