ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of advertising practice in Western Europe, with a particular focus on southern European countries. It highlights two elements that have influenced and shaped recent advertising in the region as well as its near future: the financial crisis and digital media. The EU, along with the United Nations (UN), is taking a leading role in reducing the impact of climate change and limiting global warming. One of the EU's ambitious targets is that by 2020 all EU members will have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels. It is undeniable that in the present time, western Europe is characterised by a postmodern ethos, where society is guided by a strong hedonistic desire: a desire that is satisfied by the constant consumption of goods and services, and the conquest of the self in the aspiration of being 'other'.
