ABSTRACT
Outside of North America and Europe, Latin America is the world region with the longest history and closest engagement with the globalization of the advertising industry. US-based advertising agencies were opening up offices in selected Latin American capitals as early as the 1920s, and Mexicans and Brazilians had their own thriving agencies before World War II. The establishment and growth of radio on a commercial basis in the major countries of the region were decisive in laying the basis for the subsequent commercialization of television, not only as the premium advertising medium, but also as a political and cultural institution which remains uniquely Latin. This chapter will demonstrate that, in the present era, the advertising industry in Latin America largely has been incorporated into the same global holding companies as dominate the industry elsewhere in the world, but this has not been without independent traditions of creative work having established themselves and winning international peer recognition.
