"While the increase in dot.com ad spending continues to capture the attention of the advertising and marketing communication community, we are seeing a shift in the category leaders," said David Peeler, President and CEO of CMR. "Where in the past the pure Internet players, such as Yahoo! and America Online, dominated the list, we are now seeing companies - including several online financial services companies - with a clearly defined, unique selling proposition at the top of the leader board. Further, we also see that the Internet-related category outspent such stalwarts as Telecommunications, Hospitality and Restaurants which underscores the impact that the Internet industry enjoys."

While General Motors led the way among parent company spending ($669.9 million), Philip Morris enjoyed the largest percent increase (26.3%) (with the exception of Census advertising by the United States Government). McDonald's continued its dominance of the brand chart outspending second place Burger King by 58.7%.

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