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Chrysler’s Second-Half Ad Spend to Exceed $1Billion

Chrysler Group’s President-CEO Tom LaSorda says the automaker will more than double what it spent on advertising in the first half for the remainder of 2006.

Chrysler spent $527 million in U.S. measured media in the first half of this year, AdAge reports. That would place its second-half budget well over $1 billion.

In June the automaker said it was conserving ad dollars from the first half of the year for eight new-product launches in the later part of the year. But Chrysler also plans branding ads supporting the DaimlerChrysler’s American and German engineering theme.

Chrysler’s strategy for its future growth is to continue to push outside North America and to enter new small-car segments both at home and abroad, with much of the growth coming from the Dodge brand.

The automaker also cited “bloated inventories of our light-truck products” in announcing that it will post an operating loss of $1.5 billion in the third quarter after 12 straight profitable periods.