of the businessmen the very notion of truth emanated not from any social values or ethics external to their business, but was a product of their business. As such, it is not at all surprising that the Progressive era’s truth in advertising legislation, enacted in various states in the years following 1910, was not a move by irate citizens to clean up the ad business, but part of a public relations campaign which attempted to legitimize the ad industry’s own conception of honesty.
