Who We Are

In 1909, two Toledo admen — L.G. Medbury of Peninsular Engraving and William Bayless of Conklin Pen — started a club one afternoon that's still meeting today. Within a few years it had helped push Ohio's truth-in-advertising law through the legislature and helped found what became the Better Business Bureau.

One member became a legend well beyond Toledo. Theodore MacManus, advertising manager for Kobacker's department store here, wrote “You'll Do Better at Kobacker's” — then reworked it into “You'll Do Better in Toledo.” He went on to write “The Penalty of Leadership,” the 1915 Cadillac ad later voted the greatest advertisement of all time, and to mentor a young Leo Burnett, who'd go on to create Tony the Tiger and the Pillsbury Doughboy. This chapter has produced people who shaped how the whole industry writes.

AAF Toledo is the local chapter of the American Advertising Federation — the nation's oldest and largest advertising trade association, representing over 40,000 professionals and students across a network of 150+ chapters nationwide.

That map reaches close to home, too. We're part of AAF's Central Region — nearly 12,000 members across 60+ local clubs in 18 states — and within it, District 5, one of the region's five districts, spanning Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. It's the same organization behind the American Advertising Awards, the industry's largest creative competition, drawing more than 25,000 entries a year nationwide.