The worldwide spend on advertising currently stands at over US$400 billion a year, and – love it or hate it – it has an immense impact on our lives. But where did it all start? Who are the big players now?

Adland is the first book to explore the development of advertising from an international perspective. Delving into the origins of modern advertising, it moves forward to examine the evolution of the current global advertising landscape, with all its rivalry and consolidation.

Mark Tungate has conducted dozens of interviews with the leading names in the ad business: from hard-bitten survivors of the golden age to today’s hotspot creative directors. Their first-hand accounts of life are at the heart of Adland. He tramps Madison Avenue in the footsteps of creative legends Bill Bernbach and David Ogilvy, and gets inside giant Tokyo agency Dentsu. Along the way he finds the answers to questions such as:

• What was it like to work in Manhattan in the 1950s or London in the 1980s?
• How has advertising contributed to popular culture?
• How did the dotcom boom and bust change the face of the industry?
• Can TV advertising survive the digital revolution?
• What will the agency of the future look like?

Snappy and journalistic, Adland takes us from London to New York, from Paris to Milan and on to the emerging markets of Central Europe, South America and Asia. Finally, as the explosion of digital media and the end of traditional TV viewing habits threaten to change the very nature of advertising, it puts the industry in perspective and provides an insight into the future.

Mark Tungate is a British journalist based in Paris, specializing in media, marketing and communication. He is the author of the best-selling Fashion Brands (also published by Kogan Page). He is a regular correspondent for the advertising industry journal Campaign and writes a weekly column for the French marketing magazine Stratégies. Mark writes regularly about advertising, style and culture, and his work has appeared in The Times and Daily Telegraph newspapers. He also contributes to the trend forecasting service Worth Global Style Network (WGSN.com). He writes the text for The Epica Book, an annual review of the best European advertising, and is the co-presenter of a weekly French TV show about advertising creativity. www.tungateinparis.com