Advertising on trial : consumer activism and corporate public relations in the 1930s / Inger L. Stole.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stole, Inger L.

Series:

History of communication

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Advertising--United States--History.

Advertising.

Corporations--Public relations--United States.

Corporations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Consumer activism and corporate public relations in the 1930s

Place of Publication:

Urbana, Ill. : University of Illinois Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1930s, the United States almost regulated advertising to a degree that seems unthinkable today. Activists viewed modern advertising as propaganda that undermined the ability of consumers to live in a healthy civic environment. Organized consumer movements fought the emerging ad business and its practices with fierce political opposition. Inger L. Stole examines how consumer activists sought to limit corporate influence by rallying popular support to moderate and change advertising. Stole weaves the story through the extensive use of primary sources, including archival research done with consumer and trade group records, as well as trade journals and engagement with the existing literature. Her account of the struggle also demonstrates how public relations developed in order to justify laissez-faire corporate advertising in light of a growing consumer rights movement, and how the failure to rein in advertising was significant not just for civic life in the 1930s but for our era as well.

Contents:

The rise of a corporate culture : early consumer response

Advertising challenged : the creation of consumers' research and the rise of the 1930's consumer movement

The drive for legislation to establish federal advertising regulation, 1933-1935

A consumer movement divided : the birth of Consumers Union Inc.

Defining the "consumer agenda," the business community joins the Frey

Legislative closure : the Wheeler-Lea Amendment

Witch hunt, red baiting, and the end to the radical critique of advertising.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [209]-277) and index.

ISBN:

9786613044099

9781283044097

1283044099

9780252092589

0252092589

OCLC:

841172398