The real campaign for honest advertising and for protecting readers from fraudulent advertising apparently began when the Farm Journal for October, 1880,went one step further and prom
ised to “ make good to subscribers any loss sustained by trusting advertisers that prove to be deliberate swindlers. . . . No publisher in the United States had ever made such an offer.” 103 That the result of the plan was satisfactory was indicated by the statement: “ Over twenty -five hundred dollars' worth of ad
vertising of a doubtful character was refused admission to these columns (those of the Farm Journal] through 1880 and 1881, and we think this ought to be a pretty good endorsement of those who are now in .” 104
But it was probably ten years later 105 that these early and somewhat isolated attempts gathered a collective momentum
and have resulted in the present widespread opprobrium incurred
by misleading, dishonest, and objectionable advertising.106 In the mutual congratulations of press and public on the success of the campaigns for honest advertising it must never be
forgotten that this success has been the culmination of many long- continued , though spasmodic, efforts to bring it about and that its beneficial results have extended far beyond the
immediate object of protecting the public from unscrupulous advertisers.
But the interest of the student of history in advertising also extends far beyond theusesmadeofit by commerce,philanthropy , government, and all the varied activities of modern life , and far beyond the questions involved in honest advertising. He is
103 Wilmer Atkinson , An Autobiography, p . 180. 104 Ib ., p . 184.
105 J. A . Thayer dates from 1892 the beginning of the refusal of patent medicine advertisements by the Curtis Publishing Company. - Astir,
pp . 87-89. In chap. X , “ The fight for clean advertising," he gives an account of the effort to eliminate all fraudulent and objectionable advertis ing .
106 It is interesting to note a certain timidity that still prevails in some localities . In 1917, a leading paper advertised that it printed more advertise ments than any other evening paper published in Boston, although nothing of a doubtful or unpleasant character is accepted ,” and that it “ does not
accept highly speculative advertising.” — Advertisement in New York Evening Post, January 10 , 1917. In view of the active campaigns carried on
in New York and Philadelphia , this seems a conservative statement of
