Advertising Regulation 2010

National Advertising Review Council
Self-Regulation of the Advertising Industry

A Brief History of Advertising Regulation
      The first official regulation of the advertising industry happened over 100 years ago, when in 1906 the government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act. In this era, the most common deceptive practice was to mislabel products, especially medicines, tonics, food, etc. from what the actual ingredients were in the container (FDA).   Oftentimes, harmful ingredients were left off the label entirely. This law made it illegal to continue with those deceptive practices.
      Shifts in political power and cultural attitudes lead to new directions in the legal system.  The origin of federal regulation of advertising is a product of the Progressive Era, which was a time of at least moderate reform and restructuring in response to the industrialization, urbanization, and modernization of the late 19th century (Rabe).
      In 1914 the government established the Federal Trade Commission, initially to enforce anti-trust legislation. Soon they broadened their scope to include regulation of false advertising. The extent the FTC had to determine “misleading” advertising and their authority to punish the perpetrators was highly debated and took several years to establish (Rabe).   With the passing of the Wheeler Lea Act in 1938 the Federal Trade Commission was amended to enforce the “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce are hereby declared unlawful” (FTC).
      In the late 1960’s several advertising associations, some of which have been in place since the early 1900s, realized a need to function efficiently and without government involvement. They started planning a new non-government regulation entity. They grew tired of relying on government to regulate their industry and often felt they were treated unfairly (Rabe).
      This associational self-regulation would be a “manifestation of private-interest government which, like... [continues]

Read full essay