The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of creativity in advertising from a practice-based perspective and illustrate the dynamics and relations between practices that can constitute this phenomenon. A nine month long ethnographic study was conducted in the context of an international advertising agency in Iran, where the organisational aim of doing being creative is in contradiction with the broader social system of the country which largely promotes conservative thinking. Such tension makes practitioners aware of their intertwinement with the practices involved in the creativity process and thus it is easier for them to reflect on what they are doing (Sandberg and Tsoukas 2011). This setting thus provides a good platform to capture the logic of practices. By drawing on Schatzki’s (1996) theories of practice, the everyday practices of creatives, their interaction with other members of their advertising agency, their clients and audiences as well as with existing advertising and ideas within the social and situational milieux from the start of a campaign until receiving approval are examined. The findings indicate various stakeholders participate in the process of creativity in advertising, such as creatives, other ad agency members, the client, the campaign’s audience, and the governmental officers, all of whom can have different requirements and preferences. While prior literature makes valuable contributions to our understanding of creativity in advertising agencies, in particular related to the important features of the creative outcome, the environmental factors that hinder or foster creativity and the people involved, particularly those individuals that are responsible for delivering creativity, their traits and personalities, we lack an understanding of its process and the recursive roles of environmental and structural factors that can shape and be shaped by the process of creativity in advertising. The present study contributes to this literature by adopting a practice lens revealing the process of creativity in advertising to be entwined in relational/socio-material practice, be the alignment of different preferences of various stakeholders, and be a cumulative process. In addition, techniques for pursuing different end tasks are explored and practices are found to be carriers of culture, and the internal and external rewards in practices are found to be the perceived competences of a practice and the embracing of the identity of a practice respectively. Finally, some managerial implications based on the outcomes of this research are proposed. These cover the establishment of practice-based guidelines with a corresponding reward system for evaluating creativity in advertising, introducing an appropriate physical layout and structures for ad agencies that can enable the alignment of various objectives and avoid potential tensions, providing a comprehensive induction and training for staff, ensuring an organisational flat structure as well as deploying collaboration as the most appropriate type of leadership for controlling creatives.

In the Czech Republic, advertisement is regulated by legislation and by the Czech Advertising Standards Council, which supplements the legislative requirements for advertising with an ethical dimension and establishes respective ethical rules through the Code of Advertising Practice. It cannot legally enforce compliance with the Code and therefore promotes self-regulation in this matter. The aim of this work is to analyze problematic advertising campaigns in the Czech Republic and to explain how the regulation of advertising is applied in practice. We present an analysis of campaigns which largely exceeded the limits set by the Code. The work should contribute to the understanding of why these infringements occur and how they could be prevented.

Magister Legum - LLM / Deceptive advertising, which is also known as false advertising, refers to a manufacturer making use of confusing, misleading, or blatantly untrue statements to promote a particular product or service. The phrase ‘false, misleading or deceptive’ was apparently adopted from North American legislation. It is important to begin by defining these key terms that are frequently used in this thesis. A ‘false’ representation means giving wrongful or incorrect information to someone. A ‘misleading’ representation can be defined as one that leads someone astray, or causes someone to have an incorrect impression or belief. A ‘deceptive’ representation is similar to a misleading representation because it is aimed at deceiving the consumer which ultimately leads to the consumer making an error in judgement. These terms are very similar to each other but there are subtle differences between them. Representations are often misleading or deceptive by virtue of it being false. A representation can, however, also be true yet still be misleading or deceptive.