Mommy? Why am I glowing?

I was watching TV last night and saw a commercial for Dr. Scholl's orthotic inserts and a fancy little machine that can be found in stores nationwide which performs something called "foot mapping"
Here's what the machine looks like:

And it reminded me of shoe fitting fluoroscopy that happened be in the local Sears (or any major department store) in the 1940's.  The machines looked like this:

"In our opinion, however, the shoe-fitting fluoroscope was nothing more nor less than an elaborate form of advertising designed to sell shoes. It entered a well-established culture of shoe-selling hucksterism that relied on scientific rhetoric; it took advantage of the woman client newly accustomed to the electrification of her home and the patter of experts' advice about "scientific motherhood"; it neatly sidestepped the thorny problem of truth in advertising that became an issue in the interwar years; and it enticed thrill-seeking children into shops where salesmen could work their magic." -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10967875

So basically, a pregnant mother walks into Macy's with her brood to buy shoes. She puts the new shoes on each of their feet and instructs them to "stand in the fancy machine" and look at all the bones inside the shoe. (meanwhile, little Timmy and Mary  were getting exposed to  10 to 116 R in a 20-second period   - while people who work with known radioactive materials were not supposed to exceed .1R) The get a fancy certificate that looks like this:

Wait     a     minute...

Now, I'm not saying you are going to get blasted with a shitload of radiation at your local Wal Mart (well, if a retailer is going to expose you to a lethal substance, Wal Mart would be the one to do it-- mmmmm mmmm pink slime in your ground meat and toys covered in lead paint anyone?), but I find the similarity between these two products and their marketing strategy quite uncanny.

So not only does Hollywood remake every movie that didn't really need to be remade.  (Clash of the Titans needed to be remade... really?) But now, a device that has likely caused a substantial yet undetermined amount of health issues (cancer, birth defects, thyroid damage to name a few) has been risen from the grave (I'm assuming without anything in it that will put prematurely customers into one- unlike its predecessor) because.. let's face it, folks. Truly unique ideas are few and far between these days.

Maybe it's the high fructose corn syrup.  Or the genetically modified corn. Or the fact that people are asked for great ideas and then they allow google to inspire them with ideas from yesteryear and stuff gets recycled over and over again.

 The baby boomers will likely look at these machines with just a little bit of nostalgia, and possibly buy the shoe inserts based on that. (very clever, Dr. Scholl's!) Particularly I think this concept got recycled because - well...
gadgets are cool and feet are pretty damn boring. Some things never change.

Addendum:
Holy Crap.  Dr. Scholl's actually HAD their own fluoroscope! Behold: