That's simply un-true. Advertising is a growth strategy, but you can only grow when you're sure you've got all your ducks in order. What often happens during a recession is that the people in charge cut back on growth areas to ensure they are still focused on the right things. If they find that they are not, they persue new directions, if they confirm that they are going in the right directions, they reinvest.

You can rant about it all you want, but that is the reality of the marketplace. Not reacting to reality is not a smart thing to do, and most smart investors would rather keep their cash then give it to a (now riskier) venture.

of course it's a growth strategy. i would never suggest otherwise. but this IS the technology age. and i would even go out on a limb to suggest, if you're not growing and/or innovating, you're dying.

and that's doubly true when financial systems collapse

If you are traveling without focus on your direction, you will eventually fall off a cliff.

People start really worrying about their eventual cliff drops (real or imagined) during a recession. All businesses will need to react to that perception change if they want to survive.

if you've got your "ducks in a row" which i guess is the PC version of "shit together"... then you'll always be prepared for whatever comes. it's when you're not prepared and have these glaring flaws in your organization that everything falls apart when cliffs are spotted :D

it takes a true complete meltdown to kill a business that's "properly" run. we can only dream of that kind of perfection, though. i personally feel that ad-driven businesses are afforded a little extra cushion in bumpy times because their revenue is not directly from the consumers. of course sufficiently mountainous bumps are still felt O_o

thanks for your input

(above is tounge-in-cheek if that wasn't clear)