Hewlett-Packard slashed its ad spend by about one-third in the first half of 2006 by buying fewer print ads. Most marketers haven't been that extreme, judging by the overall ad spending numbers for
the first half of 2006--which rose 7.4 percent to $64.8 billion, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. But while some marketers took HP's approach, others among the top 200 spenders increased their budgets four-
or five-fold with a heavy emphasis on TV. Sepracor, maker of the sleep drug Lunesta, and NutriSystem increased spending on TV; the financial-services sector was also up.
