Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co product called the "smoke ball" and claimed it to be a cure for influenza and a number of other diseases. (The 1889–1890 flu pandemic was estimated to have killed 1 million people.) The smoke ball was a rubber ball with a tube attached. It was filled with carbolic acid (or phenol). The tube would be inserted into a user's nose and squeezed at the bottom to release the vapours. The nose would run, ostensibly flushing out viral infections. The Company published advertisements in the "Pall Mall Gazette" and other newspapers on November 13, 1891, claiming that it would pay £100
Name-letter effect more value to things merely because they own them. Nuttin puts the name-letter effect down to people automatically liking and valuing anything that is connected to them. As such, the name-letter effect is just one example of a more general mere-ownership effect. In which case, various verifiable predictions follow. Another group of researchers has framed the cause in terms of social psychology, specifically the self-esteem theory. Beginning with Greenwald and Banaji in 1995, this group states that the name-letter effect results from implicit self-esteem, a person's tendency to evaluate him or herself positively in a spontaneous, automatic, or unconscious manner.