"If nature fails, your food may remain undigested, leaving you headachy and irritable," counseled an old radio ad from the makers of Carter's Little Liver Pills. Though its laxative pills are still manufactured today, Carter's was required to remove "liver" from the name after a protracted legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission in the 1940s and '50s.
Carter's was unable to show any benefit to the liver, but the FTC apparently took no stance on the company's assertion, in that same old radio ad, that the pills would help you "feel cheerful and happy again." With just a touch of humor, the regulators might have raised another cautionary flag by noting Carter's sponsorship of a radio drama that was anything but sunny.
As for the painted words to the right of the Carter's sign (below), they appear to be unrelated. Can you make them out?
Surviving sign for Carter's Little Liver Pills
48 Ferry St. (Union-Prospect Sts.), Newark, New Jersey