There are three types of public service co-design – good, useless or like snake oil

Early Chinese immigrants to the United States brought a lot with them, including medicines. One of their most popular — and effective — treatments was a liniment for arthritis and joint pain derived from fats found in the Chinese water snake.

Eventually, an enterprising white showman took to selling his own liniment. He would tour towns, making an exciting performance of slicing open and boiling live rattlesnakes before proclaiming the near-universal healing properties of the scum that rose to the surface.

Unfortunately, the omega-3 acids that made the Chinese medicine effective barely existed in rattlesnakes, making the product useless.