Quality control: The origins of the Australian Consumers' Association

Abstract

The Australian Consumers' Association (ACA) was formed in 1959 in response to increasing market competition, falling product standards and mass manipulation by marketers. Despite being the first, largest and most influential consumer organization in Australia, the Association and the origin of the Australian consumer movement have been little studied. From its inception, the ACA acted as mass production's quality controller, directing its fire against the mass marketing methods that obscured rational consumer choice. But rather than rejecting the dual principles of mass production and mass consumption, the ACA sought to reform the system by equipping rational, informed consumers with independent, scientific information about products.

Keywords:

• Australian Consumers' Association
• advertising
• business
• consumer
• consumer affairs
• consumerism
• consumer protection
• demand management
• marketing
• market research

Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the assistance given by the staff of the Australian Consumers' Association in Sydney Australia in finding materials for this article. I am grateful to Professor John Wilson and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. Refrigerator advertising increased from 153,607 column inches in 1954 to 243,936 column inches in 1958; while washing machine advertising increased from 69,390 column inches in 1954 to 164,732 column inches in 1958. (‘Advertising’, 1954 and 1958.)

2. In Australia, Daniel Oakman and Gail Reekie have written on the development of market research (Oakman, 1995; Reekie, 1991).

3. Australian critics focused on Americanization. See, for example: Boyd, 1960, pp. 79–88; Coleman, 1962; McGregor, 1966, p. 59; Pringle, 1965, pp. 17 and 123. These writers followed a tradition that originated in the United States. See, for example: Veblen, 1899; Galbraith, 1958; Packard, 1960; Riesman, 1961. For historical criticism, see: Horowitz, 1985, p. 169; Horowitz, 1994, pp. 9, 103, 113, 120; Lears, 1994, 3; Lebergott, 1993, p. xii.

4. For writings on the Housewives' Association, see: Johnson, 1999; Oldfield, 1989; Smart, 1986; 1994; 1998.

5. Kingston's research into the ACA is limited to three issues of Choice.

6. As at 25 February 2003 the ACA had approximately 106,000 subscribers to Choice (including voting members) and approximately 25,000 online subscribers: email correspondence with Lizzie Ball, Choice Consumer Services, 25 February 2003.

7. The introduction of the pharmacy degree course at the University of Sydney is largely attributed to Thorp, who worked to have the academic standing of pharmacy upgraded. http://www.usyd.edu.au/pharmacology/depthist (accessed 27 October. 2000).

8. Australia was a founding member of the IOCU alongside the consumer organizations of Belgium, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States.

9. By 1980 AFCO was primarily concerned with uniform consumer legislation, consumer safety and the restructuring of the manufacturing industry; AFCO Report, 30 June 1977 – the figure represents the combined membership of the member organizations (Brown & Panetta, 2000, pp. 12–14).