more on historical U.S. advertising expenditure

I’ve made some additions and revisions to the CS Ad Expenditure Dataset that I posted two weeks ago.  One important addition is alternative figures for U.S. internet advertising, 1997-2007. See the “internet” spreadsheet in the CS Ad Dataset. This spreadsheet gives the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) U.S. internet advertising revenue for 1997-2007, as well as U.S. advertising figures for Google (2002-2007), Yahoo (2002-2007), and newspapers (2003-2007).  These additional data show that the Coen internet advertising expenditures for 2004-2007 are far too low.  I’ve kept the Coen internet figures in the category-structured database because the effect of revisions in the internet figures on other figures isn’t clear.

I’ve made some minor revisions to the pre-1935 advertising figures.  These figures might be of some current interest because they span the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1933, U.S. GDP fell 46% and total advertising expenditure fell 54%.  A combination of bad luck, wrong decisions, and shattered faith made that disaster.  It need not happen again, but it could.

David Carson of Husky Media has observed that online video advertising has suffered from having a television ad model imposed on it.  He asks, “why are we blindly accepting that the best way to build online-video markets is by applying an ad model from a completely different medium like television?”  Note that the Coen categorization includes $37.4 billion advertising expenditure in an “other” cateogory in 2007.  For comparison, the IAB recorded $21.2 billion in internet advertising expenditure in 2007, and the Coen figure for broadcast television is $44.5 billion.  The large size of the “other” category indicates that much advertising expenditure is not easily classified. A wide range of advertising forms already exist, but tend to be underappreciated.

As noted previously, that data are also available in an Excel workbook.

Update: I’ve added estimated yearly Microsoft online U.S. advertising revenue, 2002-2007, to the Internet sheet in the ad expenditure dataset.

COB-27: respecting job assignments

One of the bureaucrats on the staff here at the Carnival of the Bureaucrats observed with pride some time ago the head of an important government agency entering his agency’s headquarters. At the headquarters’ entrance are guards who check ID badges after persons swipe through an electronic badge machine.  After clearing the electronic badge machine, without hesitation and with due respect for job assignments, the agency head politely showed his badge to the guard.  The guard then gave him an approving gesture to enter. This is a clear indication of a well-functioning bureaucracy. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor obsolescence, redundancy, or mighty leaders can deter a bureaucrat from doing her job.

Jeremiah Owyang at his Web Strategy blog celebrates unsung heroes.  He mentions “technology vendors, PR firms, agencies, and even VCs.”  His failing to mention bureaucrats is a serious oversight.

Pete Graner at RedVoodoo declares:

I received a comment on my blog, referencing the Kernel Team requiring a LP bug prior to committing a patch to the tree. The person commenting called it “Bureaucracy”. … Its not about bureaucracy, its about accountability.

Mr. Graner has made a common mistake.  The procedure concerns both bureaucracy and accountability.  Both are useful and worthwhile.

Alex Papadimoulis at The Daily WTF celebrates serious fricking bureaucracy.  This is extremely impressive. Our favorite part: “There was a reason that the support rep’s voice sounded so familiar: she was Jessica, and 774-6216 was Jessica’s number.”  You have to read it to understand.

Chris, at the inspiring blog “Bureaucracy Now!” offers an uplifting quote for the day:

“Regardless of what happens — if a kid dances on your sand mandala — it’s okay. If everybody in the world had that kind of stability of mind we’d be better off.”

All bureaucrats aspire to stability.  It starts with the right mindset.

Azelma Petit at Biz.Edu offers 30 Creative Ways to Fire Someone Who’s Not Pulling Their Weight.  Creativity and firing have little relevance for bureaucracy.  Consider this:

14. Fired Fruit Basket – People usually send fruit baskets for appreciation. Why not change the entire meaning of a fruit basket by sending a fruit basket with a “You’re Fired” card? Even though the employee will still be upset, at least they get some fruit out of it.

If we had a sense of humor, we would rate that as 7.2 out of 10 on the standard humor measurement scale.  But bureaucrats don’t have a sense of humor.

Texas Politics offers a detailed, factual discussion of Texas goverment bureacracy.  This is the kind of document that should replace silly, vacuous mission statements in leading bureaucratic organizations.

Village Connections has honored supporters of New Zealand’s Education Amendment Bill with a Shovel Award.  This distinguished award is for “digging community into a bureaucratic hole.” The award citation observers:

The reason for the Shovel is that this Bill will add another layer of bureaucracy and more bureaucrats to the community. … it is a move away from an environment where children and adults alike develop skills in communicating with one another about whom to trust and in what ways, to one where people are forced to be dependent on bureaucracy.

Community outreach and social responsibility departments at bureaucratic organizations around the world should aspire to receiving such an award.

That’s all for this month’s Carnival of Bureaucrats. Submit your blog article to the next edition using our carnival submission form. Submissions should conform to the Carnival’s regulations. Past editions of the Carnival of Bureaucrats can be found on the Carnival’s category page.