During the second half of the 20th century advertising in Britain led the world. In those years advertising boosted economic growth and peoples' affluence. It reached its peak as a proportion of the Gross National Product and increasingly came to touch upon almost every aspect of every individual's life. At the same time the advertising industry was frequently under siege, as politicians, pressure groups, and others constantly sought to restrain its influence--and often succeeded.
Yet no history of British advertising covering this heady period has previously been published. During the...