In September last year, the Television Bureau of Advertising at its annual forecast conference was upbeat about US ad spend and predicted a rise of between 14 – 16 percent in 2008, driven largely by political and Olympics advertising. Now in the wake of poor performance since the start of this year, this projection has taken a significant negative turn.
That the percentage is positive is due almost entirely to political campaigning.
The problem is seen to lie with the core or non-political spending, particularly by automakers and dealers, which is falling precipitously. Speculation is that auto will fall 25 percent or more in the third quarter, and even more in the fourth quarter
