Has Advertising By CPAs Promoted A Trend Toward Commercialism?

Abstract

Because of the emphasis many firms now give to non traditional financial consulting services some professionals feel that CPAs have shifted their emphasis from professionalism to commercialism. Since advertising is often the media used to announce the offering of these services, we conducted a national survey of AICPA members to assess whether advertising contributed to the possible commercialization of the accounting profession. The studys results indicate that CPAs overall have effectively used advertising to announce their transition to broad-based financial consultants without promoting commercialism.