After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the advertising industry experienced a brief period of development, but then stagnated. Since the reform and opening up, China's advertising industry has entered the stage of benign development. In 1979, Shanghai TV Station submitted a request report for operating advertising business to the higher competent authorities, and it was immediately approved. On January 28, 1 minute and 30 seconds of "Shenqi Medicinal wine" advertisement was broadcast on Shanghai TV station. Later, the TV commercial appeared on China Central Television. Radio ads and newspaper ads followed. In this way, China's advertising industry has entered the spring and is thriving. In order to regulate China's advertising industry, in 1994, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, which makes China's advertising activities and advertising management have laws to follow and rules to follow. The advertising industry developed after it entered the legal track.

In 2002, all kinds of advertising companies in China have more than 89,000, more than 750,000 employees, TV advertising, newspaper and magazine advertising and online media advertising, the total income can reach three figures of hundreds of millions of yuan, other advertising such as outdoor street signs, light box advertising and other advertising forms with Chinese characteristics are also constantly being developed and used.

Now advertising has become the accelerator of China's economic development, but also to promote international trade, increase foreign exchange, expand the audience's vision of an important way. Since 1994, China's advertising turnover has increased at an average annual rate of about 20%, higher than the growth of the gross national product in the same period, the proportion of advertising in the gross national product, from 0.01% in the 1980s to 0.68% in 1998.

At the same time of the development of the advertising industry, the advertising management has changed from decentralized to systematic, from a single administration to a comprehensive management centered on the rule of law. At the same time, the development of advertising research and education has been accelerated, and nearly 40 colleges and universities in China have opened advertising majors, such as Xiamen University and Peking University, which train high-level advertising talents such as undergraduates and postgraduates.

On the whole, China's advertising industry is full of spring, but it is still behind compared with developed countries. For example, the annual per capita advertising expenditure in the United States is about $707, Japan is about $265, and China is less than $9. China's advertising industry also needs to accelerate its development to meet the requirements of China's social, economic, political and cultural development.