Summary
Rules in a free market economy are difficult to frame to be both fair and effective, but they are clearly necessary. How far the rules of marketing should go to protect competition and consumers will cause endless debate, and the rules will evolve over time as society's attitudes change. We need only look at 1950s ads proclaiming: "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette" and "For a better start in life, start cola earlier" to see how much social attitudes to what is and isn't considered acceptable have changed over the decades. Looking forward, marketers will need to be acutely aware of changing attitudes in society, the scientific truth about discoveries on health, and increasingly the need for all of us to lead more sustainable lifestyles.

Summary
The rapid evolution of social media means brands and companies operate in an ever-changing landscape. They face unprecedented pressure to be on their best behaviour in every aspect, from customer service to social responsibility. Marketing has a crucial role to fulfil as the gatekeeper of consumer opinion in this volatile environment, where reality must take precedence over image, consumers must be listened to and purpose must come before profits.

Summary
Les Binet and Sarah Carter contend that most people who work in advertising are young, which means many don't have a knowledge of anything that happened beyond the immediate past, and those that do won't mention it in case they appear old. This has resulted in an industry that is obsessed with what's new and what's changing. Binet and Carter believe that this matters because it stops advertising from learning from the past - old data is routinely binned and old case studies forgotten. And the obsession with what's changing distracts us from what's not changing.

Summary
In his monthly column, Paul Feldwick is asked, "What can the history of advertising tell us about the future?" He considers the suggestion that not much ever changes but goes on to claim that this is both cynical and unhelpful and instead urges readers to try and understand why past advertising work, as these same principals will apply to humans in the future.

Summary
The U.S. television series Mad Men, set in a fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960s, has ignited renewed interest from the younger generation in our regular contributor Jeremy Bullmore. Sent to New York in 1958 to work for J. Walter Thompson, he must surely know a thing or two about those scandalous years. Until now, when asked, he’s always erred on the side of discretion but here, in this exclusive article, he reveals a fascinating insight into his personal experience of those exciting years.

Summary
In his monthly column, Paul Feldwick is asked who, if anyone, should fund the History of Advertising Trust. In his response, he considers what purpose HAT fills and suggests an agency of marketing services group should seek to support it.

Summary
Governments throughout the developed world are examining ways to cut the giant public-sector budget deficits that have opened up following the financial crisis of 2008-2009. It is widely hoped that a combination of budget cuts and re-emerging economic growth will reduce the problem to manageable dimensions. This paper suggests that policies dependent on a re-emergence of economic growth to manage deficit situations may in many cases be over-optimistic, because economic growth is likely to be very low in many OECD countries over the next decade. Moreover, government forecasts for growth are frequently too high and World Bank data shows that the average rate of real economic growth has been following a largely unrecognised falling trend in developed markets since the 1950s.

Summary
The short-lived and transitory nature of fame forms the basis of this light-hearted article from Tummler, Warc's fortnightly columnist. He notes a recent survey revealing the significant portion of the UK public unable to identify famous figures from the past, and goes on to wonder what sort of recognition levels - and confusion - high profile figures from today's global advertising industry might register.

Summary
The worldwide growth in the `knowledge economy’ since the early 1980s, fuelled by powerful, cheap technology and consumer demand, has been unstoppable; by 2004 UK business investment in knowledge-based (intangible) assets was 1.4 times investment in physical assets, having been only 40% in 1970. The creative and cultural industries, within the knowledge economy, have also grown (figures given), to the extent that they are now recognised as an integral and important part of the economy as a whole, and profitable investments in their own right, not merely the recipients of grants and subsidies. It is unclear, however, how the present deep recession will affect these industries. Some kinds of spending hold up better than others in recession, but there are no benchmarks from earlier recessions to tell us what will happen to knowledge-based industries. A worry is that they may find it harder to get support from banks because of the difficulty of valuing `intangibles’, which could lead to substantial cuts in areas such as R&D, strategic advertising, software, design, and human and organisational capital. It is argued that the government should develop an explicit strategy for developing the UK’s knowledge economy and encouraging investment in it. The creative industries themselves should do more to compile and present the evidence for their importance to the economy.

Summary
As most of the world's major economies slip into, or teeter on the brink of, recession, the latest European Advertising and Media Forecast from WARC paints a bleak picture for adspend in 2009, with zero growth forecast for 2009, following negligible growth in 2008 at current prices. In real terms (accounting for inflation) the scenario is far worse especially on a country level. Of the developed markets, the UK and Spain are set to suffer most. The U.S. is set to see a decline of 1% at constant prices, and 2.5% in real terms. Japan, suffering from severely declining exports, is due to experience the biggest fall this year of the three regions, down 2.3% at constant prices, and 3% in real terms.