• Ad Age, Thursday, July 27, 2006 1 PM

It's unwelcome news for the nation's media sellers. Rising commodity costs are slowing ad-spending growth at Kimberly-Clark, Ad Age reports. As the company winnows its choices for its first global chief marketing officer, CEO Thomas Falk tells investors the winning candidate may have less to spend than once planned. Raw-material costs will be $50 million to $100 higher than hoped this year, he says, and the company is cutting back. "My guess is, for the full year, [ad spending will] be flat to up slightly," Falk says. He adds that K-C won't invest quite as much as it had, but you won't see a "dramatic pullback vs. the prior year, either. So it won't be increasing this year as a percent of sales."

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