Among the top 200 U.S. brands, four out of the top five were telecoms, which as a category helped drive Top 200 Brand U.S. ad spending up 9 percent in the first half of 2006. But those brands upped their internet spending much more than that.

Telecom's "hefty" 27.7 percent increase helped the Top 200 Brand U.S. measured media spending to reach $24.73 billion in the first half, writes Ad Age. Total U.S. media spend was $72.98 billion, up 4.1 percent over the year-ago period; without the top 200, the increase would have been only 1.8 percent.

Internet spending by the Top 200 totaled $1.65 billion, an increase of 25.6 percent from a year earlier. Financial services was the internet-spending category leader; the 18 financial-services brands in the report spent $349.1 million - a 49.4 percent increase. The largest internet spender was Vonage, No. 13, which spent $126.5 million, up 3.3 percent.

The 20 retailers in the Top 200 Brands report boosted their online spending by a collective 152.3 percent in the first half; insurance online ad spending was up 119.3 percent; automotive, up 49.7 percent; and food, up 43.9 percent.