Advertising in Belgium

Abstract

Belgium is a small western European country with a population of slightly over 10 million. Despite its limited size, it is a culturally diverse and institutionally quite complex country. The country is divided into three language-based communities. The Flemish (Dutch-speaking) community is the largest and comprises 57% of the population. The French-speaking community accounts for 42.3% of the population. Finally, there is also a very small official German-speaking community (about 70,000 people). The communities have a large autonomy in areas such as education, culture and media. Apart from this division into language-based communities, Belgium is also a federal state with three regions. The Flemish region is the Dutch-speaking part of the country not including the capital, Brussels (58% of the population). The Walloon region comprises the French- and German-speaking parts of the country not including Brussels (32.6% of the population). Finally, there is the capital region of Brussels (9.4% of the population), which is officially bilingual (Dutch-French). Since Brussels hosts, amongst other international bodies, NATO (headquarters) and the European Commission, it is an extremely international city with a multitude of nationalities and cultures. The linguistic diversity, especially, has an impact on how advertising and advertising media and institutions are organized.