Truth in Advertising

Truth in Advertising: Progressive Era Reform and the New Professionals1

By Robert Rabe School of Journalism and Mass Communications Marshall University

In the fall of 1911, John Irving Romer, editor of the influential advertising trade journal Printers’ Ink, asked business lawyer H. D. Nims to conduct a unique study of the law relating to fraudulent advertising and prepare an informative report for the magazine’s readers. The recent convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America had demonstrated to Romer that there was a strong sentiment among advertising agents for the suppression of fraudulent and misleading advertising. During the course of the convention, speaker after speaker railed against the abuses of those who engaged in the worst kinds of fraud and inflicted those who employed honest advertising techniques with not only unfair competition in the marketplace, but a serious and growing public relations problem. Although the problem was discussed in depth and with great vigor, Romer believed that the convention had failed because it lacked a definite plan for the eliminating objectionable forms of advertising. Back in New York, Romer began to draft his plan for action, a proposed model statute against forms of fraudulent advertising with the Nims article as legal background, and enlist the support of advertising clubs across the nation to lobby for its enactment in legislatures nationwide.2

1

This is a revised version of a paper first presented at the AEJMC Annual Convention in Miami, Florida, in August 2002. No unauthorized reproduction, in whole or in part, is allowed without permission from the author. 2 John I. Romer, “Legal Repression of Dishonest Advertising,” Printers’ Ink, 16 November, 1911, 3.

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In proposing this model statute to “clean up” advertising, Romer was placing his journal in the midst of two major economic and cultural tides of the early 20th century. The first of these is the...