• by July 5, 2000

Despite recent gyrations in the stock market and speculation about the future of venture capital dollars, advertisers continue to increase their traditional media advertising activity - the 1st quarter of 2000 saw a 12.7% increase over the same period last year--$22.2 billion versus $19.7 billion.

Based upon Competitive Media Reporting's (CMR) advertising expenditure information, Prescription Drugs, Investment Brokers and the prevalence of Internet-related companies fueled the growth.

"While the increase in dot.com ad spending continues to capture the attention of the advertising and marketing communication community, we are seeing a shift in the category leaders," said David Peeler, President and CEO of CMR. "Where in the past the pure Internet players, such as Yahoo! and America Online, dominated the list, we are now seeing companies - including several online financial services companies - with a clearly defined, unique selling proposition at the top of the leader board. Further, we also see that the Internet-related category outspent such stalwarts as Telecommunications, Hospitality and Restaurants which underscores the impact that the Internet industry enjoys."

While General Motors led the way among parent company spending ($669.9 million), Philip Morris enjoyed the largest percent increase (26.3%) (with the exception of Census advertising by the United States Government). McDonald's continued its dominance of the brand chart outspending second place Burger King by 58.7%.

PARENT COMPANY JAN-MAR 00 JAN-MAR 99 % Change GENERAL MOTORS CORP 669,942.3 631,832.1 6.0 PHILIP MORRIS COS INC 427,307.2 338,214.4 26.3 PROCTER & GAMBLE CO 373,841.9 393,424.4 -5.0 DAIMLERCHRYSLER AG 370,899.2 335,311.8 10.6 FORD MOTOR CO 308,121.6 315,964.2 -2.5 WALT DISNEY CO 281,163.4 251,856.5 11.6 TIME WARNER INC 276,971.4 258,535.1 7.1 JOHNSON & JOHNSON 214,469.4 199,269.3 7.6 US GOVT 173,766.5 91,195.1 90.5 SONY CORP 171,813.7 162,965.3 5.4 TOP 1 - 10 TOTAL 3,268,296.6 2,978,568.2 9.7 TOTAL 22,159,687.9 19,658,052.0 12.7

MEDIA JAN-MAR 00 JAN-MAR 99 % Change CABLE TV NETWORKS 2,275,698.3 1,742,759.0 30.6 MAGAZINES 3,548,284.2 3,149,618.2 12.7 NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS 944,900.8 733,153.7 28.9 NATIONAL SPOT RADIO 568,593.1 432,903.6 31.3 NETWORK RADIO 156,259.0 112,725.1 38.6 NETWORK TELEVISION 5,083,914.5 4,549,942.7 11.7 NEWSPAPERS 4,136,983.1 4,116,803.7 0.5 OUTDOOR 494,319.0 411,896.9 20.0 SPOT TELEVISION 3,915,429.9 3,421,053.1 14.5 SUNDAY MAGAZINES 268,873.7 270,751.0 -0.7 SYNDICATED TELEVISION 766,432.3 716,445.0 7.0 TOTAL