Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Patrick Trucchio with BMO Capital Markets.
Alan Ennis
Good morning, Pat.
Patrick Trucchio – BMO Capital Markets
Hi, good morning. I apologize in advance if you’ve already answered these. I’ve been on and off the call. But the first question I had was on retail inventory levels. Last quarter, you felt [ph] that the retail inventory destocking would be permanent. Could you give us an update on what’s happening with that?
Chris Elshaw
Well, as we said earlier, we don’t see -- we don’t believe we’ve seen any significant impact on our net sales results in the third quarter from further inventory destocking. However, retailers continue to be very closely focused on inventory levels and they are just monitoring the situation very carefully.
Patrick Trucchio – BMO Capital Markets
Okay. And then secondly, on the restructuring program, I think the total savings you expected from the initiative was about $30 million, with $15 million in the second half of 2009? Could you provide some color on how that benefit impacted the third quarter? How much you realized in the third quarter? And are you still on track to achieve the $15 million in the second half and the $30 million annualized?
Steven Berns
Yes, sure, Pat. In terms of being on track, we are absolutely on track. We executed the program flawlessly on schedule in May and June. We realized $6 million of savings in the third quarter, which was our plan. We would realize a further $9 million of savings in the fourth quarter and then the balance of $15 million will benefit the first and second quarter of next year.
Patrick Trucchio – BMO Capital Markets
Okay. Okay. That’s great. Thanks so much.
Alan Ennis
Thanks, Pat.
Operator
(Operator instructions) Your next question comes from the line of Ken Ben with Jefferies & Company.
Ken Ben – Jefferies & Company
Yes.
Alan Ennis
Good morning, Ken.
Ken Ben – Jefferies & Company
Good morning. Could you talk about advertising going into the fourth quarter and into the first half of next year? With the new products, will you be increasing that or are you still just getting much better deals on advertising so that the expense will still be lower even though you are getting more exposure?
Alan Ennis
Well, a couple of things. First of all, as it relates to the third quarter, to reiterate the points you made earlier, so we actually in the third quarter increased our media presence across our portfolio of brands around the world. So we realized rate savings. So we got our -- our gross rating points were at lower rates. So we actually benefited from a cost standpoint.
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