Bonnie Patten

Executive Director

Bonnie Patten is Executive Director and co-Founder of truthinadvertising.org (TINA.org), a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization focused on protecting consumers from false advertising and deceptive marketing. From its inception, Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) has worked to expose brazen falsehoods in marketing for what they are, whether it’s fly-by-night operations hawking obscure products or the marketing activities of the nation’s largest corporations. TINA.org’s work has uncovered deceptive practices and false advertising that often target vulnerable consumers, from senior citizens to parents of children with disabilities to families in economic distress.

Bonnie provides the overall vision, leadership, and direction to help TINA.org achieve its mission and strategic goals. Her commitment to educating the public about deceptive marketing and fraudulent ads stems from her belief that education is the only viable way to effectively eradicate the market of false ads.

Since launching TINA.org, the organization has filed more than 200 legal actions, published more than 1,000 ad alerts, written over 800 news articles, and tracked more than 2,000 federal class actions alleging deceptive marketing. Since 2015, state and federal agencies have fined companies more than $250 million based on TINA.org legal actions, and returned millions in ill-gotten gains to consumers.

Bonnie has testified before Congress on issues related to consumer protection, deceptive marketing and economic justice. She is a regular commentator in the media including appearances on NBC, CBS, ABC, BBC, and CBC, in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Atlantic, The Economist, Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, and on podcasts such as The Dream.

Bonnie is the recipient of the 2019 Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award from the National Consumers League (NCL) for her work fighting false and deceptive advertising.

Prior to helping found TINA.org, she spent most of two decades working as a litigation attorney in New Haven, CT. She earned her J.D. from Boston University and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.