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Advertising expenditure has risen globally and in Australia there has been a 2.7‐fold increase in the last ten years. It is suggested that some advertisements may be “unacceptable”, that is, unfair, misleading, deceptive, offensive, false or socially irresponsible. This research is concerned with consumer behaviour and consumer complaint behaviour specifically in the area of advertising in Australia. The findings indicate that complainants are significantly different from the population at large. This research will afford the regulatory bodies a better understanding of the complaining public as well as educating marketing communications strategists in effectively reaching their target markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer attitudes toward advertising regulation in local contexts.

A survey was carried out of 211 Chinese consumers and 205 US consumers.

It was found that the two samples converge in their views on free commercial speech, self‐regulation, and regulation by market forces. Yet, the Chinese are more likely than their US counterparts to support government regulation, endorse legal ban on strong sexual and indecent content, and favor rigorous advertising regulation. The females of both countries are more enthusiastic than their male counterparts about regulating strong sexual images in advertising and requiring advertising to promote positive values. Both countries witness considerable generational gaps, as the older respondents are more conservative in their views and more likely to support rigorous regulation of advertising.

The paper is the first to systematically survey consumers' attitudes toward advertising regulation.

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.

Demographic trends are suggesting that older people are growing in importance in the population. The advertising industry has been accused of ignoring older people in advertisements, or treating them inappropriately. In order to respond to accusations of ageism within the industry it is suggested that regulation may be required to raise the awareness of advertisers and agencies to the importance of older people, and to encourage more age diverse advertising. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted to elicit the opinions of advertising industry commentators about the issue of ageism in advertising. The general opinion was that the industry was ageist, and may require the incentive of regulation before it will respond to the needs of the older population.

Although there is considerable scholarly research on advertising self‐regulation in the USA, there is no research at all on the unique problems that comparative advertising created for those involved in the industry's self‐regulation. This study aims to address this gap in the literature with an historical analysis of the industry's efforts to respond to the widespread adoption of comparative advertising during the twentieth century.

The study's primary and secondary sources consist of nearly 640 articles collected from historical and contemporary trade journals. The analysis focuses on two research questions: When did calls for the reform and regulation of comparative advertising appear, why did they appear, and who did advertisers believe should be responsible? and Why did advertisers and industry observers believe comparative advertising should be regulated, and what were the consequences of their self‐regulation efforts and initiatives?

The paper finds that industry calls for comparative advertising reform began to appear during the Depression and peaked during the most contentious period of self‐regulation, the 1970s. The findings show that during the 1930s, members of the industry mostly abandoned their efforts to manage what they considered unfair business practices, including explicit comparative advertising, by shaping government policy. The findings also reveal that the issues of disparagement of competitors and the misappropriation of their brand names and trademarks set the stage for an extraordinary conflict between the industry, its self‐regulators, and the Federal Trade Commission.

The findings offer some new and interesting insights into the consequences that can occur when advertisers choose to employ explicit comparative advertising, or what has been called “the hardest sell of all”; the history of advertising self‐regulation in the USA; and the complex relationships among consumerism, political and economic ideology, and industry self‐regulation.

The purpose of this study is three‐fold: to provide recent evidence in the UK on the frequency of appearance of female role portrayals in print advertisements; to compare female role stereotypes across magazine types; and to explore the interface between female role stereotypes and product categories.

An integrative approach to content analysis was used in order to analyze advertising communication in print media. The sample consisted of n=3,830 advertisements published in ten high circulation UK magazines.

The study indicates that women in UK magazine advertisements are mainly portrayed in decorative roles; and that female role stereotypes vary significantly across magazine types. The findings also suggest that there is an association between product categories and female role stereotypes.

The study highlights the need for the advertising industry in the UK to adjust its communication practices to the changing role of women in society.

The study extends research in the area of female role stereotypes in print advertising by considering the frequency of female role portrayals across different magazine types; and investigating the association between product categories and female role stereotypes.

Examines the development and benefits of quality management techniques in the UK advertising industry from both agency and client points of view. The research was conducted through a questionnaire survey of UK advertising agencies and advertising clients, and covers a wide range of issues, mainly concentrating on ISO 9000 but including also quality improvement techniques. Claims the results show that, where ISO 9000 has been applied, substantial internal business benefits have been seen by agencies, but that clients have not perceived improvements in the quality of service received. Paradoxically, an increasing trend towards client preference for agency registration to ISO 9001 is reported. Concludes that the ISO 9001 quality system standard has not yet gained universal acceptance in the advertising industry and agencies would prefer a quality standard that is specific to their industry.

In a constantly changing and increasingly globalized world, religion still plays a significant role in influencing social and consumer behavior. This study will analyze what influence religion and intensity of belief has on attitudes towards the advertising of particular controversial products and services. A questionnaire was distributed to 1,393 people across six different countries and resulting in samples of four main religious groups. The results indicated some statistically significant differences between the groups, which can have important implications for global marketers.