Question 13 - 16 are based on the following passage.

    In recent years, the amount of money spent on advertising has skyrocketed. Expenditures on advertising totaled 40 billion dollars in 1970, 56 billion dollars in 1980, and a staggering 110 billion dollars by 1988, representing more than two percent of the gross national product of the United States. Furthermore, corporations a e spending more and more money on design, display, packaging, and marketing. While exact figures are not available, conservative estimates indicate that in 1988 businesses spent at least as much on these areas as they did on advertising. Among advertisers, it has become accepted wisdom that in a highly competitive market, corporations must spend more and more money on researching target consumers, attractive packaging and display, and compelling promotional activities.

    The prodigious amount of money spent on the sales effort has generated some negative consequences. Because of the oversaturation of the market and he struggle for consumers' limited attention, the recent trend has been towards the concentration of power in a small number of giant corporations. Problematically, the monopolization of media capital has led to a situation in which many of the key producers of consumer goods also control the media through which their products are advertised. These conglomerates tend to have limited interests, which results in a restriction of the types of media content and information delivered to the erage media Consumer.

    The concentration of advertising power in the hands of a number of large corporations grants these leviathans a high degree of influence over popular culture and society While it is traditionally assumed that mass media content is designed for consumers, it is perhaps more accurate to say that the media content is actually geared towards the needs of advertisers. Consider that in 1981 newspapers and magazines brought in 30 billion dollars from their advertisers and a mere 7 billion dollars from their customers. This disparity in income shows who in fact the purveyors of media content are truly beholden to.

 According to the passage, it can be inferred that in 1988, the amount of money spent on the "sales effort" ....