Consumer Reports Archives Exhibitions
Publications
Consumer Reports: The Magazine
In addition to its advocacy and product testing work, Consumer Reports also grew into a large publishing operation. While the organization’s flagship magazine Consumer Reports and the annual Buying Guides are well-known, it also published small, easy-to-distribute pamphlets, a children’s version of Consumer Reports, and book-length treatises on tobacco use, prescription drugs, family planning, and more.
Inaugural issue of Consumers Union’s flagship publication, later titled Consumer Reports, signed by the founding members of the organization.
Penny Power and Zillions
Introduced in 1978, Penny Power was dedicated to young consumers. Penny Power was a comic-book-style character who was “Cindy Straight” most of the time, “a typical shy, black schoolgirl wearing glasses.” However, when defending the rights of young consumers, she transforms into Penny Power, a superhero with “full, super afro, wears a Super-woman type costume, no longer wears glasses.” The issue was printed in English and Spanish.
In the late 1980s, the editors of Penny Power felt the title of the magazine no longer resonated with young consumers. With the help of a consulting firm, editors chose Zillions as the new title which they thought “reflected the unlimited choices kids faced.” This debut issue is signed by the magazine’s editorial team.
In the fall of 2000, Consumer Reports invited fifteen kids aged 9-14 to test the Playstation 2, Nintendo Game Cube, and the recently released Microsoft Xbox. The kids were asked to consider things like ease of controller use, quality of graphics, and game play. Some of the resulting anecdotes were shared alongside the organization’s experts’ objective findings.
Specialized Buying Guides
Less than a year after the organization’s founding, Consumers Union published its first Buying Guide in 1937, a single-volume comprehensive guide designed to inform the purchasing decisions of the modern consumer. They continue to produce this guide in December every year.
To keep up with technological and cultural changes, Consumer Reports began publishing specialized guides on automobiles, travel, health supplements, and home computers.
Published in 1972, this report directly addressed the use of narcotics in the U.S., including heroin, cocaine, LSD, and hashish. The book also addresses the psychological and societal effects of addiction and the failures of criminalization and prevention programs.
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