Advertising and Media in Asia: Setting Some Context

Abstract

From the point of view of the critical study of the advertising industry, Asia has never been more interesting. Until the 1980s and 1990s respectively, Western-based advertising agencies were very much excluded from the largest markets, China and India. Now these countries are both undergoing rapid economic growth, and seeing the emergence of new categories of consumers — not only the much-vaunted ‘middle class’. Yet, for all the exceptional rates of growth in advertising expenditure being recorded, and the breathless rhetoric of the trade press, the impact the global advertisers and their agencies have upon Asia needs to be put into perspective. For instance, although the use of the internet and other new media is rapidly gaining ground, television still dominates, because that is the medium favoured by the biggest-spending advertisers in these countries. Ultimately, Asia is defined more by its geographical unity than anything else, for in most relevant aspects its diversity is arguably greater than that of any other world region, and this is reflected in the collection of articles presented here.