MarketingVOX: As a result of its acquisition of Gillette, Procter & Gamble became the largest advertiser in the U.S. in 2005, spending $4.61 billion compared with the $4.35 billion of second-place General Motors - the first time the $4 billion mark has been surpassed - writes AdAge, citing its "100 Leading National Advertisers" report, which contains info about the country's 100 largest advertisers' lead marketing personnel, brands, agencies, agency contacts and advertising spending by media and brand, sales and earnings.

Together, P&G and GM accounted for nearly 9 percent of the top 100 national advertisers' total 2005 U.S. ad spend of $101.31 billion, which is up only 1.3 percent from the previous year, according to the report (pdf).

The small growth was "a byproduct of the odd-year ad cycle that lacked an Olympics or a major U.S. election," writes AdAge, as well as "heavy industry consolidation among some of the nation's biggest marketers and the shifting of ad dollars from traditional media into less expensive new media and below-the-line forms of advertising."