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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

In a number of recent multi-billion dollar cases brought against cigarette manufacturers, plaintiffs have in part alleged that the cigarette manufacturers (1) conspired not to compete on the basis of health claims or the introduction of potentially safer cigarettes since the 1950s, and (2) engaged in fraudulent advertising by making implied health claims in advertisements selling ‘low tar’/‘light’ cigarettes. In this type of litigation, defendants’ actions could be due to alleged illegal behaviour as asserted by plaintiffs, or be the result of market forces that may have nothing to do with allegedly inappropriate acts. We examine the economic evidence relating to these allegations, taking into account some of the major influences on cigarette company behaviour. In particular, our analyses show that much of the cigarette manufactures’ behaviour can be explained by Federal Trade Commission and related government actions, rather than conspiracy or fraudulent acts. We find the economic evidence is inconsistent with an effective conspiracy to suppress information on either smoking and health or the development and marketing of potentially safer cigarettes. Regarding ‘lower tar’ and ‘light’ cigarettes, the economic evidence indicates that the cigarette manufacturers responded to government and public health initiatives, and that disclosing more information on smoking compensation earlier than the cigarette companies did would not have had any significant impact on smoking behaviour.

Reports research by ChildWise into how children approach the advertising they encounter; this is the first fully interactive generation, who can process information with ease. Explores their familiarity with the role of advertising in their lives, whether they can recognise advertising messages when they see them, where they find advertising (typically on TV), what is advertised, whether they approve of advertising and think they can rely on it, whether they think that there are rules regarding advertising, what rules they would like to see, which adverts they enjoy, TV adverts for children’s products, which adverts influence them to want to buy or persuade their parents to buy, and how they would design their own advertising campaigns.

This paper seeks to propose a framework for systematically investigating international advertising regulation; to provide an in‐depth understanding of the Chinese advertising regulation system; and to use China as a case study to examine how various global and local forces interact and negotiate the landscape of international advertising regulation.

The paper employs historical analysis; and textual analysis to achieve its purpose.

Chinese advertising regulation relies largely on government regulation, and self‐regulation plays a much subdued and marginal role. The Chinese regulator aims to control the negative effects of advertising through rigorous regulation as well as certification and censorship programs, but its various advertising laws and regulations are invariably phrased in vague and general terms, so that enforcement and compliance become a major issue. The lack of autonomous trade and consumer organizations combined with minimal public participation in the system further reduces its transparency and effectiveness.

The paper offers a detailed road‐map for advertising professionals to navigate the complex Chinese advertising regulation system.

The paper is the first English article to provide a systematic examination of Chinese advertising regulation.

Describes the legal environment of advertising regulation in Switzerland as it affects children; there is a patchwork of federal and self‐regulatory codes, but although the constitution protects children’s physical, mental and moral development, there is no law specifically relating to advertising to children. Outlines restrictions on advertising in specific media and products: television and radio, where tobacco and alcohol advertising are banned; cinema, where tobacco is not advertised before pm; tobacco and alcohol, which can be advertised if this is socially responsible and not aimed at children under 18; medicine, where advertising is restricted to over‐the‐counter products; books and magazines, where alcohol and tobacco advertising are banned, as are pornography and violence; and toys. Concludes that advertising to children is very liberal in Switzerland, and the system of self‐regulation works well.

This paper explores some misconceptions about children's advertising, in the context of food brands. It concludes that children are in essence ‘mini‐adults’, both in their approach to food, and to advertising generally. It illustrates children's sophistication about advertising, but concludes that it is essential to create a rounded ‘brand experience’ beyond any single communication channel.

The great attractions of the Internet are its flexibility and its international reach and, some might say, its anarchic nature. However, a company planning advertising or trading on the Internet must not assume that it is not regulated. This is simply not true. This paper focuses primarily on the regulation affecting advertising and the financial services sector (which is already a heavily regulated area in its own right). Financial services companies should be aware, however, that there is a raft of other relevant legislation, such as data protection (including the trail‐blazing data protection bill published on 14th January 1998) which is required to implement a 1995 EU Data Protection Directive in the United Kingdom.

This paper aims to trace the emergence, rise and eventual fall of Mojo-MDA. Established as a creative consultancy in 1975, Mojo embarked on an ambitious growth strategy that would see it emerge as Australia’s first multinational agency. By examining the agency’s trajectory over the 1970s and 1980s, this paper revisits the story of an Australian agency with boundless confidence to develop a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic role played by corporate culture in the agency's fortunes.

This study uses reports and features published in the Australian advertising trade press, along with other first-hand accounts, including oral history interviews and personal correspondence with former agency staff.

By identifying the forces and influences affecting Mojo-MDA’s outlook and operations, this paper demonstrates the important yet paradoxical role that corporate culture plays in both building and undermining an agency’s ambitions and the need for marketing historians to pay closer attention to it.

This examination of an agency’s inner machinations over an extended period presents a unique perspective of the ways that advertising agencies operate, as well as the forces that drive and impede them, at both national and global levels. The Mojo-MDA story also illustrates the need for marketing and business historians to pay close attention to corporate culture and the different ways that it affects marketing business and practices.