Talk to Recovery EinsteinYou're not alone — day or night
Home › A.A. questions, from the books › The Traditions

Tradition Eleven: does A.A. advertise?

In short:

  • The Long Form of Tradition Eleven says A.A. "ought to avoid sensational advertising," that members' names and pictures as A.A. members should not be broadcast, filmed or printed, and that public relations should rest on "attraction rather than promotion" (p. 565).
  • It doesn't say A.A. must stay hidden. In 1946 Bill W. criticized groups that shunned all publicity, because they forgot the alcoholics in town who hadn't heard A.A. existed.
  • What A.A. avoids is selling itself and praising itself: "There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us" (p. 565).

What the Long Form says (p. 565)

The Eleventh Tradition's Long Form has five sentences:

  1. Relations with the general public "should be characterized by personal anonymity" (p. 565).
  2. "We think A.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising" (p. 565).
  3. Members' names and pictures as A.A. members "ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed" (p. 565).
  4. Public relations "should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion" (p. 565).
  5. "There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us" (p. 565).

The word in the Long Form is sensational advertising. The short form drops that and keeps "attraction rather than promotion" together with personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films (p. 562). The Long Form doesn't forbid letting the public know A.A. exists. It also gives the trustees the job of handling A.A.'s overall public relations, on the groups' authority (p. 565), which assumes A.A. has public relations.

What Bill W. wrote in "Anonymity" (1946)

Two kinds of mistake. Bill describes groups at both extremes (P-17, p. 43). Some, especially new ones, behaved "like secret societies," keeping even their friends and families out (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 43). Others advertised their activities at every chance and put members' names on public platforms (P-17, p. 43).

Hiding has a cost. Groups that shun all publicity year after year grow slowly and "become stale" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 46). In their anxiety to keep secrets, "they forget their obligation to other alcoholics in their communities" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 46) who haven't heard A.A. has come to town. Usually the caution breaks down: meetings open to families and friends, doctors and clergy are invited, and "Finally the group enlists the aid of the local newspaper" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 47).

Why quiet works better than promotion. Reporters who cover A.A. complain at first about writing without names, then become friends of A.A. when they see a group of people who want no personal publicity (P-17, p. 45). The public, tired of pressure selling and spectacular promotion, is drawn by A.A.'s quietness, modesty and anonymity (P-17, p. 45). Bill's summary: "Our public relations policy should mainly rest upon the principle of attraction and seldom, if ever, upon promotion" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 47).

The line. A new member shouldn't rush to a newspaper or a microphone, and nobody should publicize A.A. "without being sure of the approval of his own group" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 46). Members and groups may decide for themselves how far to drop anonymity, with one exception: nobody, writing or speaking for publication as an A.A. member, discloses their full name (P-17, p. 47).

Looking back in 1955 (dated)

In 1955 Bill told of members who tried to use A.A.'s name commercially, including one who planned a sponsored series of radio "lectures" on A.A. for a life insurance company (P-17, p. 53). A.A.'s headquarters objected and the project was dropped (P-17, pp. 53–54). Bill feared every advertising man in A.A. finding a commercial sponsor and using A.A.'s name to sell anything (P-17, p. 54). Editors, he wrote, trusted A.A. because it refused to advertise its leaders or members, a "strange and refreshing novelty" to them (P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous", 1955, p. 57).

Later, for comparison (dated)

The Twelve Traditions Illustrated (P-43, 1971) makes the same point from the other direction: a sick alcoholic who never meets a member will struggle to find A.A. "if the local group thinks it should be anonymous, too" (P-43, 1971, "The Eleventh Tradition").

What the text settles

A.A. doesn't promote itself, praise itself, use sensational advertising or put members' faces and names before the public. It does make itself known, and the 1946 text treats a group that hides from the alcoholics around it as failing them. Where exactly "making known" becomes "promotion" isn't spelled out; the Long Form gives the principle, not a list.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages First published
The Twelve Traditions, Long Form, Traditions Nine and Eleven (Big Book Appendix I) 565 AA Grapevine, 1946; in the Big Book from 1955
The Twelve Traditions, short form 562 by 1950
Bill W., "Anonymity" (P-17) 41–47 AA Grapevine, 1946
Bill W., "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous" (P-17) 48–58 1955
P-43, The Twelve Traditions Illustrated Eleventh Tradition © 1971 (updated 2023)

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). P-17 page numbers are the pamphlet's printed numbers (© 2019), which match aa.org's free PDF.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and P-43 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., reprinted by A.A. World Services.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.