104 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



rific. "It speaks and the whole world listens." The money spent annually 

 exceeds a billion dollars, and I am told that the advertising of foods repre- 

 sents a substantial part of it. If this tremendous power could be turned 

 to the socially useful purpose of disseminating truthful information about 

 foods, it might not be impossible to make our people the healthiest and 

 most vigorous men and women the world has ever known. On the other 

 hand, like a sales tax, the cost of food advertising is borne chiefly by 

 those who can least afford it, and to assess them for the disadvantage of 

 receiving misinformation is to add insult to injury. 



Manufacturers of food products, distributors, and others interested in 

 the promotion of natural or processed foods for which claims are made 

 in relation to the promotion or maintenance of good health, are asked to 

 present to the Council not only the product but also the advertising ma- 

 terial used for advancing sales, and if these conform to certain standards 

 the product is accepted as complying with the rules of the Council. Ac- 

 ceptance is necessary before any food product may be advertised in any 

 of the publications of the American Medical Association. One of these, 

 the Journal of the American Medical Association, goes to every physician 

 in the land. The product also will be listed in a book to be published on 

 "Accepted Foods," and the manufacturers are allowed to display, on 

 the package label and in accompanying advertising matter, a seal to in- 

 dicate that the product and advertising has been accepted — The Seal of 

 Acceptance. 



A number of great advertising agencies and many manufacturers early 

 indicated their willingness to cooperate, and now the number of food 

 products which have earned the right to display this seal is impressive. 

 An enormous amount of advertising literature has been reviewed and 

 approved. Much of the labor of the Council may go unrecognized be- 

 cause it consists of the elimination of misleading health claims before they 

 appear in the printed advertising. A great deal of advertising literature, 

 particularly that prepared in the form of educational charts, goes to 

 schools, and the importance of the reviewing and revising that this ma- 

 terial receives cannot be overestimated. Many school teachers have learned 

 not to use matter for display which does not carry the Seal. By these 

 means those companies and advertising agencies which are willing to 

 tell the truth about their products, and thereby assist the cause of good 

 nutrition, are given a distinct commercial advantage. 



The principal rule for consideration of a food by the Council is that no 

 product will be accepted or retained when the manufacturer or his agent 

 makes false, exaggerated, or misleading statements as to its source, method 

 of collection, preparation, or as to its value for nutritional purposes. Also, 

 if it is the opinion of the Council that the general policies of a given firm 

 are clearly detrimental to the welfare of the public, its products, other- 

 wise unobjectionable, may be rejected. In addition, certain practices of 



