Citigroup Cancels $70M of TV Advertising

scheduled advertising with the nation's major television networks for the viewing season that begins next month. The ads were pulled because the company is still developing the offerings that were to be featured, a spokesman said.

The advertisements that are being scrapped do not include Citi's multi-million dollar ''100 countries'' branding series, which was launched in April, according to a spokesman for Merkley Newman Harty, the New York agency that developed that campaign. Young & Rubicam develops advertising for Citi's corporate and consumer banking services. A spokesman for that agency did not return phone calls.

Advertising customers typically lock up prime time and other ad slots on the nation's airwaves in the spring, but it is not uncommon for those customers to later cancel or scale back their orders as the season approaches, advertising executives said.

The move by Citigroup was first reported in Advertising Age. One Citi spokeswoman said the figures cited in the report were high, but declined to elaborate. But others said the figures were right.