Ivan L. Preston: 1931-2011

Abstract

Ivan Preston, a world-renowned legal scholar who never attended law school, finally ended his career on March 2, 2011. Even without formal legal training, his work used in revising part of Uniform Commercial Code in 1990s. He a consumer protection expert and advocate who joined ACCI and attended its conferences starting in 1960s, before he an expert. He played an important role in organization for decades. Ivan added to Journal of Consumer Affairs editorial board in 1973, and in 1980 he very nearly became Journal's editor when his friend, Bob Hermann, stepped down from that role. He likewise a member, and for four years director, of Wisconsin Consumers League. But his research reputation built on studies of advertising puffery and consumer deception. Ivan a true academic who profoundly affected fields involving consumer research, and continued to expand his contributions until day he died. He officially retired a dozen years earlier, but he continued as a prolific researcher, publishing and presenting work nearly until his last breath. Most academics seem to retire and abandon their professional life, but Ivan continued to frequent academic conferences, attending at least two in last year of his life. He inexhaustibly curious and reflective, with a sharply honed sense of right and wrong. Over years, Ivan became what Wall Street Journal once called world's greatest expert on 'pure baloney' in There likely is no one who would disagree that he the expert on advertising puffery. His reputation did not end at puffery, either; it covered all deceptive practices in advertising. But that only describes last 35 years of his life. At one time, he a sergeant in US Army, and his experiences during those years continued to influence him throughout his life. After Army he became a newspaper photographer in Elyria, Ohio. But probably first truly formative step in his eventual career a couple of years he spent as an account assistant in Ketchum, McLeod & Grove advertising agency, in Pittsburgh. He went into advertising because he thought it writing and designing. He imagined himself a copywriter, and did not realize he had chosen a wrong turn by taking a position in account management department. Ivan eventually opined that he probably would never have made a good ad man, because he simply could not get excited about selling products that did not interest him. And he especially unenthusiastic about selling products that had no inherent advantage over their competition, relying solely on image. That appears to be where seed of his interest in puffery planted, because he later worked with a professor named Vince Norris who encouraged Ivan to try to articulate his feelings about such sales techniques. Not long after that he became a public relations account executive at EWR&R agency. An interest in marketing communication had taken hold of him, and it never let go. He had also met a young undergraduate intern at Ketchum who became a lifelong friend and, later, a very influential advertising professor, Kim Rotzoll. Ivan received a bachelor's degree in English from College of Wooster in 1953, but after his experience in business world he decided to seek a graduate education. He finished his master's in 1961 and a PhD in 1964, both from Michigan State University (MSU). At MSU, he not only worked under a professor named Dave Berlo, but also did research with Erv Bettinghaus, who went on to become dean of that university's communication school. Bettinghaus recalls that Ivan was first person I ever collaborated with on a research project. It my idea, but Ivan took it, developed it, collected data, and analyzed data. I wrote it up, and it became his first publication. We were testing Rokeach's dogmatism theory, and Ivan built that theory into both his teaching and research for many years. …