snake oil

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snake oil

A product that has been proven to not live up to the vendor's marketing hype. The term comes from the 1800s in which elixirs and potions of all kinds, even ones that supposedly included the oils from snakes, were sold as a cure for everything that ailed a person.

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References in periodicals archive ?

The prosecution came following an investigation by Warwickshire County Council's Trading Standards and His Honour Mr Recorder Ievins described Nickols as a "snake oil salesman".

Con man is spared jail for selling fake liposuction devices

"I really do think the towns need to take some responsibility for listening to some snake oil salesman who sold them a bill of goods," he said.

Business manager: Schools in a money mess

He said the shadow chancellor was a "snake oil salesman" offering a miracle cure but "his medicine almost killed the patient and we are not going to listen to him again".

Osborne: We've got to get behind the private sector

Put bluntly, I believe you are a snake oil salesman; a narcissist that would say anything to draw attention to himself."

A Private Battle Turns Public in Texas Senate

It's carnival barkers and snake oil salesman across the board.

Beautiful bad girl: who better to riff on lesbian style than scandalous Sandra Bernhard?

In this episode, a snake oil salesman enters Colorado Springs, home to Dr.

On grifters, research, and poverty

His answer: "we bought the cure-all potion from the snake oil salesman. We've been sold a bill of goods."