Media Ink: Wartime Ad Scenarios: Madison Avenue develops military contingency plans

Joe Mandese

Joe Mandese discusses the effect the war in Iraq may have on advertising expenditure. He quotes Sally Shoquist of Empower Media Marketing who believes that in a short conflict marketing would simply put spending on hold and,on an annualised basis, the impact would be relatively slight.

Media Ink

Wartime ad scenarios: Madison Avenue develops military contingency plans

Joe MandeseMedia Markets Daily

They say war is hell, but it is not necessarily a nether world for the advertising business. At the time of going to press, with a US-led war with Iraq appearing imminent, some of Madison Avenue's leading media minds were being called upon to act more like military strategists than industry economists.

'We are pretty good at forecasting ad spending, but predicting the outcome of wars is not one of our core competencies,' bemoaned Rich Hamilton, chief executive of Zenith Optimedia for the Americas,...

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