Advertising Has Yet to Adapt to a Society in Flux

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Let us try to look forward to the advertising industry of 2014. While changing technology has the potential to affect all our lives, it is the interaction of technology and social change that will really shape the advertising industry of 20 years' time.

If we look back to 1974, the degree of change in many aspects of our lives is surprising. In Britain, we had two elections, both won by Labour, and Miss World was the third most watched programme on television -- see the table below. We had just three TV channels and ITV frequently achieved a 50% audience share. Since then, the media and much of the rest of our lives have been transformed, but the past 20 years have left the …