Issue-Oriented Corporate Advertising

U.S. Senate, Energy and Environmental Objectives, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Environment of the Committee on Commerce, Part 2 (Washington, D.C., 93rd Congress, 2nd Session, May 6 and July 18, 1974), pp. 39–67.

Ibid., pp. 83–84. See also Textile Mill Securities Corp. v. Commissioner, 358 U.S. 498 (1959).

Cooper George C. , “The Tax Treatment of Business Grassroots Lobbying: Defining and Attaining the Public Policy Objectives,” Columbia Law Review (May 1968), p. 803. See also, Treasury Regulation 1, 162-20(c)(4) 1965; Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 162(e)(2).

Hearings, pp. 43–44.

Hearings, pp. 43, 83.

Testimony of Harvey Shulman in Hearings, pp. 45, 53–54. See also the statement by Lester G. Fant III in Hearings, p. 85, and Commarano v. U.S. (1959).

Cooper , op. cit., pp. 807–816.

Webster G. D. , “Deductibility of Lobbying and Related Expenses,” American Bar Association Journal 42, 175 (1956); Tyler G. G. , “Disallowance of Deductions on Public Policy Grounds,” Tax Law Review 20 (1965), 665. Note “Deducting Business Expenses Designed to Influence Governmental Policy as ‘Ordinary and Necessary’: Commarano v. United States and a Bit Beyond,” Yale Law Journal 69 (1960), 1017; and “Tax Treatment of Lobbying Expenses and Contributions,” Harvard Law Review 67 (1954), 1408.

Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Sullivan, 356 U.S. 27 (1958); Commissioner v. Heininger, 320 U.S. 467 (1943).

Commissioner v. Tellier, 383 U.S. 687 (1966).

Cooper , op. cit., pp. 807–808. See also Weaver David B. , “Taxes and Lobbying The Issue Resolved,” George Washington Law Review 31 (1963), 938.

Brief for Respondent, at 12, 35–36 (emphasis in original), cited in Cooper , op. cit., p. 810.

Cooper , op. cit., pp. 810–812.

Ibid., pp. 813–816. See also Sharp Dean E. , “Reflection on the Disallowance of Income Tax Deductions for Lobbying Expenditures,” Boston University Law Review 39 (1959), 365.

See Sethi S. Prakash , Advocacy Advertising and Large Corporations (in press).

For a discussion of the inconsistency of present deduction disallowance with traditions of free speech, see Cooper , op. cit., pp. 830–841. The principal court cases dealing with the issues are Valentine v. Chresetensen, 316 U.S. 52 (1942); United States v. CIO, 335 U.S. 106 (1948); Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U.S. 233 (1936); Cammarano v. United States, 358 U.S. 105 (1943). See also “Note, Freedom of Expression in a Commercial Context,” Harvard Law Review 78 (1965), 1191; “Corporate Political Spending and the First Amendment,” University of Pittsburgh Law Review 23 (1962), 847; and “Comment, Constitutional Law-Freedom of' Speech and the Corporation, Villanova Law Review 4 (1959), 377.

Cooper , op. cit., p. 853. See also the testimony of Black Samuel , attorney, Tax Analysts and Advocates, Washington, D.C., in Hearings, pp. 136–143.

Ibid., pp. 850–856. See also Southwestern Electric Power Co. v. United States, 312 F. 2d 437, 442 (ct. cl. 1963); Addressograph-Multigraph Corp. 14 P-H TAX CT. MEM. 45,058 (1945).

Written statement (pp. 33–34) of Shulman Harvey J. , attorney, Media Access Project, Washington, D.C., before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Environment, May 6, 1974. See also Cooper , op. cit., and Weaver , op. cit.

Hearings, pp. 86–90.

Consumer Power Company v. United States, CA 427 F 2d 78 (1970).

See the testimony of McKenzie Harold C. , Senior Vice President, Georgia Power Company, in Hearings, pp. 156–157.

Johnson Harold , in interview with the author. (Unless otherwise specifically stated, all direct quotes in this article pertain to personal interviews or written communications with the author.).

Hearings, p. 149.

Cooper disagrees; “Although there is a natural reluctance to risk discouraging public service activities by business, this result should not be too disturbing. Any company sincerely wishing to engage in public service activities should be able to find ample outlets for its wishes in activities which are not legislatively oriented” (p. 855).

Written statement (exhibits B, D, E) of Harvey Shulman submitted to the Subcommittee Hearings. Statement not published as part of the Hearings Report but included in the subcommittee records.

Shulman , in Hearings, p. 44.

Public Relations Journal (November 1975), pp. 36–37; “The Fortune Directory of 500 Largest Industrial Corporations,” Fortune (May 1975): p. 208+; “The Fortune Directory of 50 Largest Utilities,” Fortune (July 1975), p. 126; “The Top 100 National Advertisers of 1974,” Advertising Age, (30 June 1975), pp. 3, 56–57.

Hearings, p. 148.

See the statements of Crichton John , president, American Association of Advertising Agencies, and other industry executives, in Hearings, pp. 100, 113, 124–25, 128, 148–49, 156–57, 196.

Hearings, p. 100.

Hearings, p. 54.