Antitrust Policy toward Advertising

Abstract

CURIOSITY WAS partly responsible for my acceptance of the invitation to speak here on the subject of the Antitrust Division's policy toward advertising. I was not aware that the Division had any particular policy on this subject any more than it has on packaging, store lay-out, auditing, credit extension, or many other aspects of the conduct of a modern business. So far as I knew, advertising had entered rarely and incidentally into antitrust cases. Nevertheless there had been repeated statements in the trade press to the effect that the Antitrust Division was displaying a consistent antagonism toward advertising.' Moreover, the Antitrust Division had been receiving mail expressing approval of the policy which these letters attributed to us of reducing the price of goods during the emergency by eliminating all advertising costs; and since we had neither this policy nor the jurisdiction to apply it, these letters were not easily ex-