Advertising: by the numbers.

John Wanamaker, a department store mogul of the early 20th century, once said: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half." Many of today's advertisers probably feet the same way, but spending on ads has continued to grow nonetheless.

In 2005, companies spent more than $143 billion on advertising in the U.S. That's more than the Gross National Product--the value of art goods and services produced in a country in a year--in Israel, Malaysia, or Venezuela.

More than $47 billion of that total was for newspaper and network TV advertising. But the Internet is growing rapidly as an advertising medium. In 2005, about $12.5 billion was spent on Internet ads. Initial estimates from 2006 show a jump to $16.8 billion, an increase of about 34 percent.

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ANALYZE THE GRAPH 1. How much more (in millions) did McDonald's spend on advertising in 2005 than Unilever, which sells products as diverse as bath soap and frozen foods? (a) $20M (c) $400M (b) $200M (d) $300M 2. In 2005, AT&T actually spent 26 percent less on advertising than it did in 2004. Approximately how many billions of dollars did AT&T spend on advertising its telecommunications services 2004? (a) $3.2B (c) $3.5B (b) $3B (d) $3.6B 3. In 2005, the U.S. government spent $1.3 billion on ads. This was about...