Evening star., 1923-02-01
TRUE ADVERTISING.
CODE IS ADOPTED
Better Business Bureau Ap-
proves Rules for Preventing
Misleading Statements.
IN USE BY MERCHANTS
Ambiguous Description and Price
Listings Are Placed
Under the Ban.


advertising a code of retail practices
has been approved by the Better Busi-
| ness Bureau OF Washington. under
which misleading statements in ad
vertisements in newspapers and peri
| odicals are stricken out and a general
| type adopted for the correction of
such practice. Washington merchants,
! it was announced by the bureau, are
following the code.
The code was made public last night
/ by f. y. Wholley, in charge of the
Better Business Bureau. 1t was
drawn up by the retail practices COM
mittee. consisting Of members of the
board of trustees of the Better Busi-
ness Bureau. The announcement de-
| clared that the committee. after care
full deliberation and much investiga-
tion and research. both in Washing
ton and in other retail centers, re-
ported this code OF practices, which
was later unanimously approved by
the board of trustees of the Better
Business Bureau. with instructions to
furnish copies TO all of the Washing
ton retail merchants for their use"
Subjects Taken Up.
The subjects taken up" it was
added. were those various practices
which, while in many cases unethical.
were not always illegal, but were the
subject OF constant misunderstood
ing between merchants, between
merchants and the public. between
merchants and the newspapers and
between the bureau and it's MEM
bers"
Among the items considered are
advertisements of seconds" irregu-
lar. or sub-standard goods; OF fur
and fur advertising; of weight. guam
tity and measure: of advertisements
of diamonds and precious stones: Of
free" article advertising and similar
pra ctices.
For instance, the code would re-
quire a merchant to desist from ad-
verusing $3.50 hose for $3.50" unless
the $3.50 hose were absolutely up to
par. and not seconds of $3.50 type.
An advertisement of this sort, when
the hose were not regular quality"
would have to read: silk hose. s159,
seconds of regular $3.50 quality"
Must Name Furs.
In fur advertising the code ap-
proves that all limitations of seal
must be qualified in, parentheses by
the name of the actual fur from which
the limitations are made. When
Hudson seal beckons ailuringly
from an ad, the code demands that
dyed muskrat" be placed beside IT
in parentheses. In the same way, bay
attended by a parenthesized dyed
coney" or dyed rabbit" And so on
through the fur kingdom
In diamonds and precious stones,
the same integrity must rule The
term perfect" is prohibited unless
tC he al f,-aA
flaws. blemishes and carbon spots.
The term fiawless is preferable in de-
scribing a diamond. Things that sound
nice and mean nothing are prohibited
The term "eye-perfect" is banned. The
term, perfect cut" is banned. APP
proximate weights are banned
Weight must be given exact and guar
anteed.
The up to- class also comes in for
consideration. For instance. dresses
formerly priced up to $50. for sale at
$3.50" shall read. dresses formerly
selling from $40 to $50. for sale at
$3.50.
Ban on ..Free. Articles.
When articles are advertised free"
with a purchase 1t would constitute a
violation of the code, which says
such sale should be advertised Suit
tire and tube. $3.50 instead of Suit
with an extra pair of trousers free.
ss5.' or "A tube free with every pur-
chase of a tire. s425o."
The wind-up subject is Shefield sill
YER. On the topic the code declares:
The term Sheffield silver in de-
scribing any silver-plated hollow
ware. should be avoided. Such mer-
chandise should be advertised as
Sheffield silver plated or, preferably,
simply as silver plated"
Seven Washington merchants, mem
bers of the board OF trustees Of the
Better Business Bureau, were ap-
pointed a committee to discuss uneth-
ical business practices that were con-
stantly creating disputes in mer-
chant circles last spring. For six
months or more they worked on the
matter and finally submitted to the
Better Business Bureau a code of
ethics for publication. These were
unanimously passed by the board, ac-
cording to the announcement and are
being used by all of the Washington
m mercha nts at this time. The commit
tee consists of B. B. Burgunder, chair
man: Otto DeMoll, I. L. Goldheim, Ru-
dolph Jose. A. C. Case. Clarence Red
man and Ralph w. Lee.