ADVERTISING

Ad Spending Optimism, Redux: Once again, the industry’s top ad spending forecaster is projecting that the advertising slump is ending--and once again, industry skeptics say he’s wrong. Domestic ad spending should rise 5% this year, said Robert J. Coen, a senior vice president at the New York ad agency McCann-Erickson Worldwide. A year ago, Coen’s initial projection was that 1992 ad spending would increase 8.5%. But last year, ad spending actually fell 1.7%. “It certainly is a lot better than we saw a year ago,” Coen said. “Things are on their way back.” A different view was expressed by Richard Kostyra, media services director at J. Walter Thompson USA, who said he detects only slight improvement, if any, in ad spending.