Items of Interest October 6, 1934 Issue

Items of Interest

All readers of The Christian Science Monitor will doubtless concur in the statement that the advertising columns render service. If they did not, they would not be published. When, twenty-six years ago, the Monitor was in preparation, following Mrs. Eddy's instruction to the Directors of her Church and the Trustees of its Publishing Society to start a daily newspaper, she opened the door for the pursuit in its pages of "Truth in Advertising." Doubtless many of us can remember the days when much of the newspaper advertising could not be relied upon, for the publishers took no responsibility for the claims of their advertisers, and advertising statements were greatly exaggerated, while some were deliberate attempts to mislead. But a new impetus was given when the first issue of the Monitor came into the light of day; and the resulting influence in advertising circles permeated farther than can be measured.

One can say, however, that the Associated Advertising Clubs of America undertook in 1909 at their annual conference to "make twentieth century advertising the handmaiden of truth," as one of the members later expressed it. And at their seventh annual convention, held in 1911 in historic Faneuil Hall, in Boston, the president in his opening address said: "It is eminently fitting that we should come today to set in motion a convention of one of the world's greatest educational influences—clean, truthful, honest publicity. ... For two years and more we have steadfastly held to a purpose. That purpose, gentlemen, is to educate the advertisers of this country that only honest, truthful, and clean advertising will be permanently profitable. At the same time we are endeavoring to teach the American people the believableness of advertising, and forever to stamp out the stigma of untruth that is so often applied to our profession; to banish from the minds of the people the thought that the advertisement of a corporation is a whit less binding than ... its signed note."

The doctrine set forth in the 1911 conference in Boston was reiterated the next year, and again in 1913, when a definite step forward was taken. A member of the clubs, who was the representative of the Monitor, recommended to the president in effect that, as the Associated Advertising Clubs had definitely accepted the idea of "Truth in Advertising," steps should be taken to make the idea practical. The member proposed that the next convention program translate that idea into practical steps. Forthwith the Monitor's representative was made chairman of a committee to carry out the thought he had expressed. The 1914 convention was held in Toronto, and the "Standards of Practice" worked out during the year by the appointed committee for the sixteen departments of advertising were presented by those appointed to do so; and the convention adopted the entire series, which provided concrete rules, and procedures for action following infractions of the same. The Monitor's representative, writing of this experience, states, "Since that time 'Truth in Advertising' has become the dominating thought in advertising practice." So progressed an intensive right effort which has vastly improved the reliability of advertisements in reputable newspapers generally, an effort which has been exemplified in the Monitor for twenty-six years.

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