BBB Code of Advertising
Originally called "Vigilance Committees" or "Advertising Clubs", the first Better Business Bureaus (BBB) were established in the early l900s. Their goal was to correct marketplace advertising abuses. In response to marketplace demands, BBB's quickly expanded to monitor business performance and provide consumers with vital information to avoid the pitfalls of the marketplace.
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President's Column: Advertise Truthfully
Welcome to the first-ever BBB newsletter devoted entirely to advertising – the cornerstone of the BBB.

Your business knows the real purpose of spending major dollars on advertising...the primary goal is to increase your business's visibility in its market and to attract new buyers in the hope that you can earn the right to convert those buyers into customers. After all, the most important asset any business can have is a strong and sufficient customer base.
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Scam Alert: Fraudulent Ads
Fraudulent claims can show up in ads for a wide variety of services and products. We are frequently asked why a publication accepts an advertisement that is deceptive or fraudulent. The short answer is that these are paid advertisements that are not always fully pre-screened. The Federal Trade Commission publishes a booklet, Screening Advertisements: A Guide for The Media. It states that there is one basic evaluation standard that they believe applies to all ads: Does the offer, promotion, payoff or benefit sound too good to be true? Applying this standard and exercising caution to spot buzz words and techniques to detect questionable ads increases the ability to protect consumers and advertisers alike.
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Business Advertising Quiz
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Ad Reviews
We are frequently asked about our Advertising Review process. A few of those FAQ’s and our responses are:

1. Does the BBB challenge ads of BBB Accredited Businesses or just the ads of non-members? We regularly review, on a rotating basis, several newspapers published in our service area, as well as mail solicitations and advertisements, TV and radio ads., We challenge ads using the Code of Advertising as our standard and do not differentiate between BBB Accredited Businesses and those that are not accredited.
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New Members
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Anniversaries
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ACCREDITED BUSINESS ADVERTISING:
One of the key benefits that we provide our Accredited Businesses is the ability to display the highly regarded and widely recognized "BBB Accredited Business" logo in certain aspects of their advertising and promotion. There are responsibilities that come with this benefit, one of which is agreeing to use special procedures, including binding arbitration, to resolve disputes. For further details about arbitration go to http://www.dr.bbb.org/ComsenseAlt/bindArb.asp.

Only Businesses who have signed and returned the "Accredited Business Identification Program" (AIP, formerly known as MIP) agreement may use the "BBB Accredited Business" logo in advertisement or promotion. Only those who sign up for the AIP Program and BBB Online, a separate and distinct program, may use the Logo or advertise their Accreditation on the Web.