—UK’s Top Advertisers: Overall ad spend dropped 4.8 per cent to £8.65 billion last year, with every sector except cinema experiencing negative growth. The figures, from a Marketing magazine survey carried out by Nielsen, show that Proctor & Gamble was the country’s biggest advertiser last year in terms of ad spend, with £178.5 million—but the Government’s Central Office of Information was close behind with £178.1 million. Print was the worst-hit sector and received £3.38 billion in ad spend, a six percent drop year on year.

—Open Rights Group: More opposition to ISP-based ad company Phorm, this time from the Open Rights Group which has written an open letter to seven blue-chip internet companies urging them to boycott Phorm’s Webwise online behavioural monitoring software says it invades users’ privacy. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Facebook and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) are all asked to protect their users’ privacy by opting out of the system—which has yet to launch, but it is expected to at some point this year. Phorm denies its software is illegal and argues that Webwise anonymises user details. Read the full letter here.

—Specific Media: Online ad network Specific Media has opened a Manchester to meet what it calls “growing demand from advertisers and agencies in the regional market”. Martin Tingle, previously of the Media Sales Network, will head the new operation. Release.