As mortgage-related companies cut back their spending on advertising last year, so did most other types of advertisers. But one bright spot was spending on Internet ads.

Last year U.S. advertisers spend $149.0 billion, TNS Media Intelligence reported yesterday. Ad spending was up a paltry 0.2 percent from 2006.

For just the fourth quarter, expenditures were down 0.1 percent from the same period in 2006, the report said.

"The ad market remains stalled and is being engulfed by the spreading pessimism about general economic conditions," TNS Senior Vice President of Research Jon Swallen said in the statement. "Fourth-quarter performance was indicative of this malaise and early figures from 2008 suggest the growth rate for measured ad spending has not appreciably changed."

Missing from the ranking of last year's 10 biggest advertisers were any mortgage-related companies, the data indicated. Procter & Gamble Co. held the No. 1 spot.

Still, among the top 10 categories of advertising, "financial services" held the top spot, TNS reported. Spending in this category totaled $9.1 billion during 2007, rising from $8.7 billion the prior year.

"Lower spending by credit card marketers and late-year cutbacks by mortgage and loan advertisers were more than offset by rising budgets from retail banks and investment brokers," according to the announcement.

Internet display advertising jumped 15.9 percent in 2007, TNS said. Internet advertising, which excludes paid search and broadband video advertising, accounted for 7.6 percent of overall ad spending last year, up from 6.6 percent in 2006.