Editorial Perspectives on advancing the advertising field for academics and practitioners. Celebrating 40 years of the International Journal of Advertising

This special issue celebrates the 40th anniversary of the International Journal of Advertising. Nineteen articles from prominent authors cover advertising topics and look at the past, present and most importantly, the future of advertising research, offering extensive suggestions for future research. The issue covers four themes: Looking back at the advertising discipline through four decades, societal and policy issues in advertising, advertising in the digital age, and looking forward in search for future issues that should be studied. A broad variety of topics, theories and methods are covered, such as sustainability communication, diversity and inclusion, privacy issues, advertising ethics and surveillance, vulnerable target groups, CSR advertising, cause-related advertising, health care advertising, international advertising, the artificial intelligence ecosystem, branded content, influencer marketing, virtual, augmented and extended realities, gamification, the academic-practitioner divide, multidisciplinary research, setting up solid and relevant advertising research, and urgent topics for advertising research.