Advertising is an important and visible component of marketing, competition, and consumer awareness. As many companies grow and expand to serve multinational audiences worldwide, there is a concomitant need to understand culture, customs and regulation in the world markets. Not only businesses but consumers and students as well need to understand the workings of advertising and its regulation in worldwide markets.

This book is designed to fill this need for students and professionals. The book takes a thorough and critical view of the process in 21 countries, representing four continents of developed countries.

An important feature of this handbook is the consistent, carefully plotted format of each chapter, facilitating easy access to key information. For each country, the chapters cover the following:

• form of government
• history of regulation along with current operating regulation systems
• route/manner in which cases are brought forward to regulating bodies
• advertising codes, if any, and how they work
• amount of money spent on advertising by year
• consumerism and its role in advertising
• specific regulation of advertising to children, health advertising and tobacco advertising
• sanctions and control of advertising found inadmissible
• position of commercial speech in country--if any

Countries included are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China/Hong Kong, Colombia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Each chapter's contributing author is a known expert in advertising with a particular insight on that country's language, culture, and advertising industry.