The money spent on advertising is in decline for the first time ever, and this has caused a dramatic collapse in unbranded health education campaigns. You know, those are the ads that describe an illness without mentioning a med. Spending in this year’s first half on unbranded plugs fell 3 percent to $2.4 billion, according to BrandWeek, citing Nielsen Monitor-Plus data.

The decline was expected, but the numbers mask a surprise: Unbranded campaigns have been cut by more than half in the last two years, the mag writes. In 2006, drugmakers spent $660 million on health education and corporate image ads. In 2007, they spent $341 million. In the first half of this year, spending was $138 million, a 22 percent dive. Unbranded spending on the Internet has also declined.

The drop is unexpected for two reasons, the mag writes. One, big pharma signed a pledge in 2005 to make its ads more educational. Two, unbranded campaigns don’t require drugmakers to list all risks and side effects. Although Pfizer may be an exception with its Chantix ads.

Unbranded ads, designed to grow the category as a whole, are less closely tied to sales because consumers may walk out of the pharmacy with a competitor’s product, according to Matt Giegerich, ceo at the CommonHealth agency.

And Jay Carter, sr vp and director of client services at AbelsonTaylor in Chicago, which handles Abbott and Lilly ads, tells the mag that unbranded campaigns are becoming a luxury firms can’t afford. “The reason why” budgets are down, he says, “is there’s a lot of competition and unbranded doesn’t work in a competitive environment.”