Using the term "collateral damage" to describe the impact the economy has been having on U.S. ad spending, TNS MI Senior Vice President-Research Jon Swallen noted, "Advertising expenditures started to contract in March, well before the September turbulence on Wall Street renewed concerns about the health of the economy."

While second half results are likely to be "bolstered by the Summer Olympics and political elections," Swallen predicted that, "sustained improvement will most likely depend on a turnaround in consumer spending that rejuvenates corporate profits and encourages marketers to expand their advertising efforts."

According to TNS MI's tracking, every one of the 19 major media it measures posted weaker year-over-year performance in the second quarter as compared to the first three months of 2008. While quarterly details were not released this morning, TNS MI found that Internet display advertising continued to increase its share and absolute growth during the first half, rising 8.0% over the first half of 2007. That finding comes in contrast to estimates released last week by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, which actually had online display advertising declining 6% during the first half due to fallout in the financial services ad category.

Interestingly, TNS MI has financial services ad spending relatively stable through the first half, declining only a smidgen to $4.499 billion. The most significant category decline during the first half was automotive, which declined 11.2% to $6.478 billion, with the preponderance coming from imports (down 16.9%) vs. domestic (-6.3%) automakers.