U.S. 2009 Ad Spend Down 9%

Nielsen shows overall ad spending for 2009 down 9%.  Internet was relatively flat with a 0.1% gain and pharmaceutical advertising inched up slightly by 1.8% (though that excludes B2B magazine spending).

Only a few media categories such as Cable TV (particularly Spanish language cable) and free-standing coupon inserts has meaningful double digit growth.

MediaPost Publications Nielsen: U.S. ’09 Ad Spend Down 9% 02/25/2010.

In a related article, total display advertising is relatively flat (up 1% in 2009) with “flat” being deemed the new “up”.