Review of a 40‐year debate in international advertising

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Abstract
International advertisers up to now continue to be confronted with the question of whether to standardize or adapt their commercial messages. This debate over the standardization versus adaptation issue has involved both advertising practitioners and academicians interested in transnational advertising issues for at least the past four decades. There are three schools of thought regarding international advertising: standardization, adaptation, and the contingency perspective. Aims to review and contrast the perspectives of practitioners (ad agencies as well as clients) and academicians to this problem over the past 40 years. Observes interesting differences over this time frame, both within each of the two groups and between them. Finds practitioners to have alternated between the adaptation and standardization approaches over the four decades with a trend towards standardization, while academicians have mostly advocated the adaptation approach over the 40 years examined.