Crunch Puts Crimp in Luxury Ad Sales

The echoes of the economic crisis continue to reverberate, with luxury brands trimming spending on newspaper and magazine ads as their target audiences cut back, reports the New York Times. Display advertising was already in decline, and spending on luxury items, which started softening in the spring, fell off a cliff in October. Says a consultant: "This has really hit quite hard at the top, and quite quickly at the top."

Magazines that usually are jammed with holiday ads have seen ad pages plummet 22% from a year ago. Auto and hospitality advertisers are especially hard hit, but uncertainty shadows luxury retailers across the board. "We’re definitely not taking on any new advertising," says a British diamond purveyor. "And we’re cutting back on all our current advertising."
(More financial crisis stories.)