Nation of self-promoters who are suspicious of promotion - If there's RI Lead Paint III

Advocacy in all its various commercial forms got bashed in the Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance trial II. 

There was the expose about the Lead Industries Association [LIA] and how its members allegedly conspired to sell gallons and gallons more of lead paint. Even the Judge found that ridiculous and without evidence.  It got tossed.

Then there was the attack on advertising and promotional devices such as miniature Dutch Boys.  That was supposed to lure innocent children to make their parents rush off the Sherwin-Williams or Glidden and buy up gallons of lead paint.  It didn't make sense that toddlers would have paint on the top of their nag list. 

And then there was the ahead-of-its-time mobile exhibit which toured the country. Upon hearing about that tactic, the jury might could have concluded that these paint companies were way too smart to mess around with a product that was hazardous.  

The plaintiff tried this ploy because, as Tom C. Korologos points out in his opinion-editorial in today's THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, our nation looks "with suspicion on advocacy."  Korologos had operated a federal lobbying firm for 29 years.  But this "suspicion on advocacy" is much broader than lobbying per se. 

Late marketing expert Ted Levitt put in best in his essay "Marketing and Its Discontents."  Levitt outed our ambivalence about putting anything, including ourselves, out there - even though, at that time, we were globally known for our marketing savvy and success.  It was an American corporation Procter & Gamble which invented branding in 1931. No wonder our Founding Fathers had to protect this right to commercial speech in the First Amendment to the Constitution.  My hunch is that these twisted confused ideas about selling and everything else started with the Puritans and Pilgrims.  

In both the actual RI lead paint II and in the more than two years of appeals, many trees have given up their lives so Jones Day's Mickey Pohl, who represents Sherwin-Williams, could argue how the plaintiff violated the defendants' First Amendment rights.  What was wrong about joining a trade association such as the LIA?  The plaintiff introduced logs of which defendant was at what meeting in 1930-something at the LIA.  The plaintiff also decried the toy puppets used to promote certain paint brands.  And, horrors, there was that evil ad about a boy pulling a red wagon painted with one of the defendant's products.

Should there be a RI lead paint III, the defense should have an expert testify why we hate marketing, sales and lobbying, even though we're so good at all three.