[2] The drug was reportedly so popular that babies were named after it,[3] as was the mascot of Southern Methodist University.

[3] In a series of eleven articles the journalist Samuel Hopkins Adams wrote for Collier's in 1905, titled "The Great American Fraud", he exposed many of the false claims made about patent medicines, pointing out that in some cases, these medicines were damaging the health of the people using them.

Adams returned to the attack, and in another series of articles in Collier's Weekly, he exposed the misleading advertising that companies were using to sell their products.

[1][4][5] When Prohibition came into effect, Americans began using Peruna and other similar products as a way to get large amounts of alcohol.

The advertisements were almost always featured on page 5 of the newspaper and would typically include an anecdote about a particular person's experience with the medication.