Law and the Media, 4th Edition

18 Advertising

Tom Cassels and Rebecca Handler

18.1 Introduction

Today there are very few people, particularly amongst those working in the media, who underestimate the power of advertising. Since commercial television was introduced in the 1950s the advertising industry has grown massively, and it is well known that large companies are prepared to spend millions of pounds each year publicizing their products. Because a large part of these advertising budgets is devoted to buying space on television and in newspapers, the media are among the many beneficiaries.

In 1961, the advertising industry recognized that there was a need for unified control over the content and presentation of non-broadcast advertisements. The industry therefore devised ...