Pop Quiz: How much money is spent by companies in the USA on advertising in a year?
A. 1.9 Billion Dollars
B. 6.8 Billion Dollars
C. 12.3 Billion Dollars
D. 14.9 Billion Dollars
If you chose any of the above, sorry, it was a trick question. I just came across the stats regarding advertising spending for 2006 and the actual amount spent is much higher. A lot higher. The number is actually just shy of 150 Billion dollars. Read it again: 150 Billion dollars. That's more than the individual Gross National Products of some 185 countries. There are only some 35 countries in the world that have a GNP higher than the amount U.S. companies (as a whole) spend on advertising. Why do our companies spend so much?
Advertising works. It's all about the bottom line. The goal of advertising (obviously) is to sell goods and services, to you and to your kids. This just serves as an encouragement to talk to your kids about advertising. There are plenty of opportunities in any given day to engage in such a discussion. Remind your kids that the point of advertising is to create a desire within them in order to get them to buy something, so that companies can add to their profits. It's the American way. It's not that all advertising is bad, it's just that kids should learn and become savvy enough to realize that everyday, they will encounter companies (via advertising) that want their money.
TNS Media Intelligence Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Increased 4.1 Percent in 2006
Total advertising expenditures in 2006 increased 4.1 percent to $149.6 billion as compared to 2005, according to data released today by TNS Media Intelligence, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Ad spending during the fourth quarter of 2006 was up by 4.2 percent against the same period in 2005.
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
http://www.tns-mi.com/news/03132007.htm
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