For years, patent medicine advertisers had been making false claims. This gave the burgeoning advertising industry a bad reputation. The Truth in Advertising movement was conceived to change that. Although advertisers claimed that the purpose of the movement was to seek truth, the sources revealed a very different pattern. The progression of thought was: truth, respectability, public confidence, profits. If advertisers raised the banner of truth, they would become respectable, gain public confidence, and make profits. The focus of the movement was actually on profits, not truth.