Better Business Bureau From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Better business bureau) Jump to: navigation, search Better Business Bureau Founded 1912 Area served United States, Canada Focus Consumer Protection Website www.bbb.org The Better Business Bureau (BBB), founded in 1912, is an organization based in the United States and Canada. The BBB states its purpose is to act as a mutually trusted intermediary between consumers and businesses to resolve disputes, to facilitate communication, and to provide information on ethical business practices. On their website, they list their core services as: Business Reliability Reports Dispute Resolution Truth-in-Advertising Consumer and Business Education Charity Review The inception of the Better Business Bureau has been credited to the court case initiated by the government against a number of firms, whose number included the Coca-Cola Company, in 1906, after the Pure Food and Drug Act had been written into law. As a result of the trial (the legal charges had been determined to be unfounded) Samuel Candler Dobbs, sales manager of Coca-Cola Company and later its president, took up the cause of truth in advertising. In 1909, Dobbs became president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, now the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and began to make speeches on the subject. In 1911, he was involved in the adoption of the “Ten Commandments of Advertising", one of the first codes of advertising developed by groups of advertising firms and individual businesses. Similar organizations in succeeding decades, such as the National Better Business Commission, Inc. of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World (1921), and the National Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (1933) merged to become the Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc in 1946 . This association functioned until 1970 when it was merged into the Council of Better Business Bureaus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_business_bureau