Essence of Bend-Over - 1920s

I love how the prices went up by 20% before the ad was even over.

Made from 100% pure snake oil.

For those wondering exactly what these are, I know of them because they were still pretty popular in the 1990s among Hispanics (which my family is). They're basically essential oil perfumes that have supernatural aromatherapy beliefs attached to them. Basically the thought was the scent "attracted" or "emitted" some characteristic, such as attracting luck, or warding off evil. The ingredients were literally just alcohol with oils mixed into them you'd spray or dab on for the pricier stuff, or alcohol with synthetic aromas (and other more questionable ingredients) in the very cheap stuff.

That's also why they have the weird names - to make them seem more foreign in this case but to say what they supposedly do. Bend-Over is known as "El Emperador" or "Reino" (The Emperor or Reign) in Spanish, implying you get the aura or a commanding figure. They chose Bend-Over because just people didn't know the word "capitulate". Scrub's ad description doesn't quite match its name but in other languages it translates basically the same and was supposedly used to wash off "the evil eye" or people's bad vibes / jealousy they'd cast onto you (hence the picture of washing clothes with it).

Has No-Harra is the funniest misinterpretion they did - can't tell if they mixed three languages or two. Harra means "harm", but could also be mistranslated "haras" in Spanish which means "to do", so "No haras" which means "you shall not do" - and that scent was supposed to be to prevent harm being brought to you, like curses and hexes. That one probably went through a game of telephone since "preventing misfortune" probably got translated to "having fortune" would be my guess.

But yeah, spiritual / supernatural aromatherapy has historically been a thing in multiple cultures. If you're Catholic you might have even seen some sort of scent magic still used - the burning of incense at church. Just thought I'd share some of the history and culture behind these things.

Edit: Tl;Dr + extra context: these are "scent magic" perfumes taken from a poor misinterpretation of other cultures and religions that popped off during the age of occultism in the Victoria era

Fish Fry LUCK

You can see someone bending over to pray to some Hindu (?) deity in the picture.

I wonder if the meaning of this phrase changed over time, or if it was a double entendre back then already.

Where did you find this outrageous ad? It's high res enough to see every detail, I'm impressed