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Appendix A: Key Players
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appendix a Key Players Advertising Council. Known as the War Advertising Council between 1943 and 1945, this group began as an attempt by the advertising industry to pool its resources to aid the government’s home-front program.Advertisers launched campaigns to encourage armed forces enrollment,war production industries work,rationing,and victory gardens and received tax benefits in exchange. Flushed with its success and positive public sentiment, the council in its postwar campaigns tied patriotism to unbridled free enterprise and helped stifle advertising criticism. Advertising Federation of America (AFA). Established in 1929 after the demise of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, this group’s primary objective was to formulate general business policies for national advertising associations and major advertising clubs.TheAFA also worked to standardize advertising rates and contracting practices, invested in research, and effected change in state advertising bills. In 1934 it led the charge for industry self-regulation and backed plans by other business organizations to keep control of advertising. It organized outreach to schools, clubs, associations, and consumer organizations to combat the growing number of consumer advocates and eventually cooperated only with what it considered the legitimate segments of the consumer movement. In 1968 the AFA changed its name to the American Advertising Federation. American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA). This organization was founded in 1917 to protect the interests of the large advertising agencies most closely connected with national advertising. Its Consumer’s Advertising Council and its Committee on Consumer Relations in Advertising were designed as PR attempts to stop criticism of advertising. 200 . appendix a Association of National Advertisers. In 1915 this group splintered from the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World and eventually rose to prominence as the official voice for national advertising interests. John Benson. He served as president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies during the tumultuous 1930s and emerged as a vocal defender of the advertising industry. Stuart Chase. A writer critical of business and advertising, he teamed with Frederick J. Schlink in 1927 for the exposé Your Money’s Worth: A Study in the Waste of the Consumer ’s Dollars. With Schlink he founded Consumers’ Research (CR) in 1929. Chase resigned as president of the national group in 1932 to concentrate on his writing. Committee on Educational Cooperation (CEC). Formed by the NAM in 1938, the organization was designed to expound the benefits of free enterprise. Its aggressive program garnered favor with Columbia University’s Teachers College,which trained many public school educators,as well as other leaders in elementary and higher education . Its newsletters, posters, and films reached more than half of all high school students and at least one-third of all junior high school students. Committee on Public Information (CPI). Also known as the Creel Commission after its leader, George Creel, this organization was established by Woodrow Wilson in 1917 to mount an extensive propaganda campaign to mobilize U.S.support for World War I. Consumer Division of Crowell Publishing. Helmed by the editor of the Women’s Home Companion, Anna Steese Richardson,this conservative bureau was established in 1937 to serve as an industry front group.Through a series of programs and outreach efforts it tried to prove to the public that manufacturers, not the government or consumer groups, should provide information about products. Consumers’ Advisory Board (CAB). An advisory body to the National Recovery Administration, the CAB was charged with protecting consumers’ interests. Constantly criticized by Frederick J. Schlink for being out of touch, the group had a limited budget and diffuse support, so it could serve only as an ineffectual voice for consumers. Consumers’ Research Inc. (CR). Formed by Stuart Chase and Frederick J. Schlink in 1929, this consumer advocacy group focused on product testing and educating consumers. Until a strike fractured its membership in 1935, it reigned as the champion of consumers. After the group’s testing facilities were closed down in the early 1980s, its monthly newsletter focused on policy issues affecting consumers. In addition to a confidential list of product ratings, CR published Consumers’ Research General Bulletin (renamed Consumers’ Research Bulletin in 1935) and, beginning in 1937, Consumers’ Digest. [44.222.146.114] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:09 GMT) appendix a · 201 Consumers Union of the United States Inc. (CU). Born from a 1935 strike at CR and incorporated in 1936, this group was founded by Arthur Kallet, Colston E. Warne, and other Consumers’ Research members. Committed to product testing and consumer protection,it published...