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[[File:Mark Eden Bust Developer advertisement.jpg|thumb|300px|The Mark Eden bust developer was widely advertised in [[women's magazines]] of the 1960s and 1970s.]]

The '''Mark Eden bust developer''' was a device and regimen sold by the Mark Eden company of [[San Francisco, California]], that promised to [[Breast enlargement|enlarge]] a woman's [[breast]]s. Jack and Eileen Feather, California based figure salon entrepreneurs, were the promoters of the device.<ref>{{cite news |last= Brody |first= Jane |author-link= Jane Brody |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02EFDB1239F935A25752C1A965948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2 |title= Personal Health |date= 16 November 1983 |access-date= 23 February 2009 |newspaper= [[New York Times]]}}</ref> The product was widely marketed in [[women's magazines]] during the 1960s and 1970s, making claims such as, "For thousands, Mark Eden has transformed flat bustlines into firm, shapely fullness." Its makers withdrew the product from the market following their indictment for mail fraud.

==The product==
The product consisted of a regimen of exercises using a clamshell-like device with a spring to provide resistance.<ref name="Pop Culture Matters">{{cite web |url=http://www.popcultmag.com/passingfancies/websiteoftheweek/tackytreasures/tacky.html |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030902014015/http://www.popcultmag.com/passingfancies/websiteoftheweek/tackytreasures/tacky.html |archive-date= 2 September 2003 |website= PopCult |title= Website of the Week: Julie's Tacky Treasures}}</ref><ref name="Departmental Decision">{{cite web |url= http://www.usps.com/judicial/1966deci/2-204.htm |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090509063253/https://www.usps.com/judicial/1966deci/2-204.htm |archive-date= 9 May 2009 |author= United States Postal Service |author-link= United States Postal Service |title= In the Matter of the Complaint Against MARK EDEN at San Francisco, California P.O.D. Docket No. 2/204}}</ref> The device and the regimen were never illustrated or described in the advertisements, which instead usually contained pictures of women showing their breasts.<ref>See illustration.</ref> To the extent that the product had any effects at all, it worked by enlarging the [[pectoralis major muscle|pectoral muscles]] and [[latissimus dorsi]], which could increase the circumference of the exerciser's bustline without actually enlarging breasts.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.usps.com/judicial/1975deci/3-30.htm |title= In the Matter of the Complaint Against ISO-TENSOR PLAN |url-status= dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080519131643/http://www.usps.com/judicial/1975deci/3-30.htm |archive-date= 19 May 2008 |author= United States Postal Service |author-link= United States Postal Service |id= Docket No. 3/30}}</ref> Spokeswomen for the product included [[June Wilkinson]], the ''[[Playboy magazine|Playboy]]'' centerfold, who appeared in one edition of the product's documentation.<ref name="Pop Culture Matters"/>

==Mail fraud==
Starting in 1965,<ref>{{cite news |first= Jack |last= Friedman |title= The Cambridge Obsession |magazine= [[New York Magazine]] |date= 20 December 1982 |page= 47}}</ref><ref name="CIR">{{cite web |url= http://www.leagle.com/decision/198724853ajtcm195_1213 |title= Eden v. C.I.R. |id= 53 T.C.M. ([[CCH (company)|CCH]]) 195 (T.C. 1987)}}</ref> the [[United States Postal Service]] repeatedly attempted to shut the Mark Eden business down, claiming that its [[false advertising|advertising was false and misleading]]. The Postal Service first ruled that the claims made for the Mark Eden bust developer in its advertising constituted mail fraud in 1966, ruling that the claims made in the original Mark Eden advertising "far exceed [[puffery|puffing]]", and that the advertisements contained "material misrepresentations", given that "(t)here is substantial evidence that the representations as set out in the attached copy of the advertisement involved in this case are false;" and "(t)hey are the kind of representations that would invite women to buy the device."<ref name="Departmental Decision"/>

Protracted litigation between the Mark Eden business and the Postal Service was the result, leading to a [[consent decree]] and a modification of the language of the advertisements, which the Postal Service later claimed had been violated.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.usps.com/judicial/1968deci/2-204d.htm |author= United States Postal Service |author-link= United States Postal Service |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090509063812/https://www.usps.com/judicial/1968deci/2-204d.htm |archive-date= 9 May 2009 |title= In the matter of the charges that MARK EDEN at San Francisco, California, is engaged in conducting a scheme for obtaining money through the mails in violation of the Affidavit of Discontinuance executed by the Respondent on January 30, 1967 |id= P.O.D. Docket No. 2/204}}</ref> The Mark Eden corporation then brought suit against the Postal Service, and won an [[injunction]] forbidding the Postmaster from [[confiscation|impounding]] the device and funds received from its sale; this decision was affirmed on appeal in 1970.<ref>{{cite web |title= Mark Eden v. Lee |url= http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/433/433.F2d.1077.24118.html |id= 433 F.2d 1077 (9th Cir., 1970) |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100514121112/http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/433/433.F2d.1077.24118.html |archive-date= 2010-05-14 }}</ref>

The Mark Eden bust developer was one of several body and exercise products marketed by Feather, who also sold various other slimming and body modification products such as "Slim Jeans", an "Astro-Trimmer", a "Sauna Belt", and in the 1980s, [[the Cambridge Diet]]. Finally, in 1981, Feather was indicted on 11 counts of [[mail fraud]]. In settlement of this case, in 1983 the Mark Eden bust developer disappeared from the market, along with Feather's other body image products: the Mark II Bust Developer, the Astro Trimmer, the Astro-Jogger, the Sauna Belt Waistline Reducer, Slim-Skins, Vacu-Pants, Vacuum Pants, Hot Pants, Trim Jeans, and Dream Wrap.<ref name="CIR" /> Feather was made to pay a $1.1 million fine.<ref>{{cite web |first= Laura |last= Fraser |url= http://healthresources.caremark.com/topic/dietscams |title= Ten Pounds in Ten Days: A Sampler of Diet Fads and Abuse |website= caremark.com |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071011182007/http://healthresources.caremark.com/topic/dietscams |archive-date= 11 October 2007 |date= 2002 |access-date= 1 May 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first= Joseph F. |last= Mullen |title= Strength Training for Women Only |page= 29 |publisher= iUniverse |date= 2003 |isbn= 0-595-28017-X}}</ref>

==Impact==
Screenwriter [[Nora Ephron]] wrote of her experiences with the Mark Eden bust developer in an essay, "[[A Few Words About Breasts]]", originally published in ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' in 1972; the essay appears in her collection ''[[Crazy Salad]]''.<ref>{{cite book |author-link= Nora Ephron |first= Nora |last= Ephron |chapter= A Few Words about Breasts |title= Crazy Salad |publisher= Modern Library |date= 2000 |isbn= 0-679-64035-5 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/crazysaladsome2000ephr }}</ref> [[Lenny Bruce]] incorporated the device into his comedy routine; a recorded performance is included in the retrospective collection ''Let the Buyer Beware''.<ref>{{citation |author-link= Lenny Bruce |last= Bruce |first= Lenny |chapter= Toilets/Flashers/Mark Eden Bust Developer |title= Let the Buyer Beware |medium=CD |pages= Disc 5, track 15 |no-pp= yes |publisher= Shout! Factory |date= 2004 |mode= cs1}}</ref> The Mark Eden advertisements have been cited as examples of misleading language in advertisements by educators who seek to improve [[critical thinking]] skills.<ref>{{cite journal |first= D. G. |last= Kehl |title= How to read an ad: Learning to read between the lies |journal= The English Journal |volume= 72 |issue= 6 |date= October 1983 |pages= 32–8|doi= 10.2307/816228 |jstor= 816228 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Breast enlargement supplements]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:Breast]]
[[Category:Advertising in the United States]]
[[Category:Health fraud products]]
[[Category:1960s in the United States]]
[[Category:1970s in the United States]]

Mark Eden bust developer - Revision history

imported>Bruce1ee: fixed lint errors – stripped tags