LOS ANGELES:

As a journo in the acreage collecting data you get so much smoke blown up your ass that you could get cancer, and gritted smiles of bleached teeth bespeak the nervousness that currently seeps throughout our industry.

Flow was good in one camp but didn't mean a damn thing. "We have never gotten more boards in as of last week," admits a top exec. "But it was all so crap that we passed on everything."

Shoot days for spots continue to dwindle each month with stats as low as we've seen in a non-strike time to accentuate such pessimistic remarks.

"Board flow and production days have been very low," echoes a top producer. "It's been drips and drabs with no consistency at all. Our first quarter was booming; now we're doing work, but just not a lot of it."

"We haven't been doing a lot of jobs but those that we've secured are of some size," chirps one content exec, taking a breath to ponder before continuing. "I'm not complaining but then again I don't feel confident."

"A dead April, May was okay and we're looking good with a nice little spread ahead," specifies an exec in a palpably upbeat mood. "It looks more promising for us than it has in a long time."

Boards are full of safer choices including a flock of benign, comedy scripts amid the usual fare: video games (PlayStation2), beverages, cars, electronics, financial and insurance companies lead the pack.

BOARD FLOW: 4/10

TORONTO:

"Things have definitely picked up," a hesitant executive affirms. "It's picking up a wee bit," says another. "Slowly picking up," announces a third - glancing at a quiet phone, I'll warrant.

"June's quiet, but typically in June the agencies are just trying to decide what they're going to do," elucidates one less optimistic player.

Beers, automotive, electronics and packaged goods were all reported. "I haven't seen much telecommunications lately," someone says.

Budgets? "Two of the jobs we're doing this month are up to $200,000 CDN. The budgets in general are fairly low."

What Canadian projects do exist are being shot locally and American jobs, such as a massive PlayStation2 campaign, remain the biggest shows in town.

BOARD FLOW: 4/10

NEW YORK:

"I've got fifteen boards right now. Creatively, five of them are bad, seven are mediocre... maybe three of them are pretty good," says one New York exec. Another notes that, "board flow is normal for the second quarter, which is a good sign."

Board flow is increasing but tight budgets make for stodgy work. Established brands are sticking to product pieces and new clients just aren't advertising. There's been shooting in town, but it's nothing like the summers of yesteryear, with NYC-born jobs heading to cheaper production centers. Still activity in agency creative departments indicates work in the pipeline.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of times I'm watching TV and saying, 'Oh yeah, that commercial ran three years ago, that ran four years ago....' Evian is running a European spot from 1997. You know what I mean? And I'm getting calls, 'Hi, can you do this for free?' and I'm like, well... we already did stuff for free, for YOU! And almost nobody's going to Cannes."