Arbiter

"All The Ads That Are Fit To Print" are the only ones that get by the blue pencil of Joe Gannon, Class Secretary of 1899. Head of Censorship of TheNew York Times Advertising Department for the past sixteen years, he has compiled a so-called doomsday book for fraudulent advertisers.

The advertising acceptability standards of The Times, where Gannon has been an executive for 21 years, are among the strictest and serve as a model for other newspapers. Since advertising is a social force The Times holds that it must serve the public interest. When the acceptability department says an ad is untrue or unfair, it goes back to the advertiser or his agency. Rules of good taste are observed without fear of being labelled prudish. Retailers cannot use unqualified superlatives; "the best" becomes "one of the best" under Gannon's ever-watchful pencil.

Gannon became an advertising man long before Frederick Wakeman invented the term "huckster"; shortly after his graduation in 1899, in fact. A thorough round with N. W. Ayer & Son, and he was subsequently asked to become advertising manager of the Royal Baking Powder Cos. He then set up an advertising agency of his own under the name of Joseph W. Gannon, Inc., which he headed for several years before joining The Times.