A witch’s brew of foul ingredients provides cold relief to generations.
AHISTORY OF BAD TASTE
William Knapp Buckley made his fortune by leaving a bad taste in the mouths of millions. He created a cough and cold remedy that is a household name in Canada because it is undeniably horrible tasting. After graduating from Ontario College of Pharmacy in 1915, the native of Wallace, Nova Scotia, moved to Toronto in 1914. Here, he became owner of a drug store in 1919 and began experimenting with different natural ingredients that could relieve coughs and colds.
MOTHER NATURE’S NASTY, NASTY CABINET
He came up with a formula combining Canada balsam (some would call this a fancy name for turpentine), pine needle oil, ammonium carbonate (used in smelling salts to jolt a person awake), potassium bicarbonate, camphor (from the camphor tree), menthol, a tincture of capsicum (hot pepper), extract of Irish moss, and dextromethorphan (a known cough suppressant). The result was truly awful tasting and nasty smelling, as Buckley would tell you. But it relieved cold symptoms and suppressed coughs. Buckley decided that there was no need to hide the horrible flavor of his medicine. Instead, he used it as a selling point. After all, strong medicine should have a strong taste to at least seem effective.
STIR IT UP
He mixed up his early batches in a butter churn and sold the elixir for 75 cents a bottle. Despite the shudders and winces of his pharmacy customers, they gave the product positive reviews. He sold 2,000 bottles in the first year. Buckley formed the company W.K. Buckley Limited in 1920 and began marketing his product. That year, Buckley’s rang up sales of $40,000. By 1935, Buckley sold his drug store to focus all his energies on the production and sales of Buckley’s Mixture.
Buckley was a born salesman and marketing pioneer. He concentrated his sales efforts in print and radio advertising during the rapid growth of broadcasting. His son Frank has said that his father was ahead of the curve in recognizing how effective radio advertising could be, and his use of broadcasting was instrumental in making Buckley’s a hit in Canada.
Dogsled drivers yell “mush” from the French-Canadian mushon or “Let’s march.”
Some of the memorable ad lines were:
“It tastes awful. And it works.”
“We’re #1, but we taste like #2.”
“Not New. Not Improved.”
“People Swear By Us and At Us.”
In January 1978, W. K. Buckley died, but his son kept up with the clever slogans, including “I came by my bad taste honestly; I inherited it from my father,” and “I wake up with nightmares that someone gives me a taste of my own medicine.”
SOURPUSSES SELL
Some say that people bought Buckley’s for others to take just so they could watch their grimaces as they tasted the product. One TV campaign showed the many facial contortion of customers swallowing the syrup. In the runup to the federal election in 2006, the TV comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes spoofed the ad with a skit showing a number of people making the same screwed-up faces as in the Buckley’s ads. The skit revealed that they were making their faces after putting an “X” by Stephen Harper’s name as they voted.
EXPANDING THE FRANCHISE
Along the way in the company’s history, Buckley’s introduced White Rub and Jack and Jill’s children’s cough syrup. In time, the firm expanded its sales to the United States, the Caribbean, New Zealand, Australia, and Holland. After all, why should only Canadian get to enjoy the horrible taste of Buckley’s.
Because he also had a passion for thoroughbred racehorses, W.K. Buckley also created a treatment for respiratory ailments in horses called Buckley’s Zev.
In 2002, drug company Novartis bought the Buckley’s brand and formulas—and stuck with promoting its foul flavor. The company recently had a “Buckley’s Bad Taste Tour,” where it passed out spoonfuls of the mixture to random people, recording video of their reactions and for its website.
Canadian World War I pilots wore silk scarves so when they turned to look behind them their necks wouldn’t chafe.