• by John Gaffney , February 19, 2003

As The Page Turns: I’m not expressing any irrational exuberance over the recent PIB report that starts 2003 on an up note. The overall rise of 10 percent in dollars is good to see. But I believe it all comes down to categories. Overall growth is fueled by individual product categories. Packaged goods and pharmaceuticals drove 2002 for magazines. They didn’t drive January. If I was a magazine publisher this would concern me. The reason for that is these two categories could easily take money from print and reallocate it toward events, grassroots marketing and more direct/consumer response based tactics. P&G already announced a high-profile grassroots marketing effort last week. Some pharmaceutical companies made it clear last year that they would test proprietary websites and celebrity spokespeople to take the heat off government and consumer advocacy group scrutiny of their practices. Last year’s heroes might not show up this year. And for the print business, that could spell trouble.

Reality Check: Just a thought: major advertiser say they have put aside content concerns about reality TV shows, and they are now running ads because of the overwhelming audience it has attracted. You could say the same thing about objections to placing more ads on the Internet.

Parting Shot: I think the Ad Council/Homeland Security campaign needs a spokesperson. And that spokesperson can only be a Budweiser Clydesdale.