"During presentations at McCann Worldgroup's office in Bogotá, Colombia, staffers have taken to letting a chicken loose to hunt and peck around clients' feet." [WSJ]

Dear readers: you may have heard that Sam Zell's Tribune Company recently filed for bankruptcy. Do not be alarmed! Just because the company is drowning in $12 billion in debt with few prospects for a revival of its fortunes is no reason to believe that it's anything but "business as usual" at the trusty Tribune. When Zell bought the company last year, employees were assured, "Going forward, employees participating in the [Employee Stock Ownership Plan] will be invested alongside Sam Zell, one of today’s most successful investors." Awesome! And the company has already assured everyone that there's no need to get upset by today's unfortunate, catastrophic turn of events:

Our (self-described) "ruthless" overlord Nick Denton has gone on record predicting "a decline of up to 40% in advertising spending during this cycle." Thousands of media jobs have already been lost due to low ad revenues, and major ad agencies are predicted to be making large layoffs in January. And, of course, everyone is "terrified" that the collapse of the auto industry will hammer the ad industry in its wake. So how do the newly-released forecasts for ad spending next year look? Pretty optimistic, all things considered:

♦ The Tribune Co. is now hovering dangerously close to bankruptcy. [NYT]
♦ Media companies have let 30,000 people go thus far this year. [AdAge]
♦ Christie Hefner is stepping down as CEO of Playboy. [Bloomberg]
♦ It's now official: David Gregory is the new host of Meet the Press. [NYT]
♦ The New York Times Co. says it plans to borrow $225 million against the value of its new office building to "ease a potential cash flow squeeze." [NYT]
♦ More on the changes to NBC's executive ranks last week. [Variety]
♦ Ad agencies are bracing for a round of deep cost cuts. [NYP]
♦ Wowowow.com, the site featuring writing by the likes of Liz Smith and Lesley Stahl, has raised $1.5 million from Bob Pittman, among others. [NYP]
♦ Four Christmases was No. 1 at the box office this weekend for a second week in a row. [Reuters]

Yesterday's 500 layoffs at NBC Universal would have been a bigger story if not for the 850 layoffs at Viacom on the same day. CNBC—which is currently the go-to media outlet for the economic story of a generation—may have talked its way out of trouble (a bit). The Post says CNBC had 55 layouts yesterday, rather than the 80 that were predicted. And they've wisely shut down their most superfluous show:

All subversive things in our culture must eventually be co-opted by the very things that they subvert. It's the American way. The American Apparel ad spoofer—who had a months-long run of fame for creating super-porny ripoffs of AA ad posters (which eventually turned out to be Photoshop fakes by the people at Stereohell)—has now become the subject of an actual American Apparel ad. In Vice magazine, naturally! Click through for photos of Dov Charney's victory over artistic mockery:

The family of Jdimytai Damour, the Wal-Mart worker who was trampled to death at a Long Island store by a Black Friday mob hungry for discounts at any cost, has filed a lawsuit holding the company responsible for his death. And they're not just blaming the store's lack of security that morning; they're blaming Wal-Mart's ad campaign for turning sedate Long Islanders into a callous capitalist stampede of death:

There are so many ad messages out there that in order to break through and stick in your mind, sometimes companies have to use a little old tactic that experts like to call "Reverse Psychology." It's an advanced technique, and you might not know it when you see it—but you'll be able to tell when you find that you've unwittingly played right into the marketer's hands! That's why you should be very careful to watch out for some sneakiness in this ad for a new religious TV network. There's Satan, urging you not to watch the new channel. Is he giving an accurate assessment, or is there some underlying message here that's not being said? See if you can pick up on the psychological subtleties of these clever, Jesus-based media masterminds:

Hey Michael Phelps, America is transfixed by your endorsement deals for some reason! The golden fishboy should, by all rights, have fallen out of the spotlight by now. It's been what, like, four months since he won any Olympic medals? Old news. But by god people just love this goofy ass-grasper, so we and the rest of the media will continue to tell you exactly what he is formally recommending for public consumption. Today, the story of how one tiny company swindled the unsophisticated manchild into ongoing indentured servitude:

The advertising industry still has a race problem; namely, that it's run by white people, and it employs mostly white people, even though it sells to the whole wondrous rainbow of consumers. And the whole industry may soon be sued for being too white! Adweek lays out the scope of the problem in a long story this week. For example, at Interpublic Group, which owns nearly 100 ad agencies, only two are owned by black people. One of whom is Steve Stoute, who secretly sells gum with pop music. Minorities, reasonably, would like to be represented by more people than just Steve Stoute. This quote poetically sums up the outrage:

Are ads on stripper poles just not adequately getting your message out to the strip club crowd? Well now you can put your ad right on a stripper's ass. [Buttocks pun]. [via Adrants]

Agency Spy has heard that the two ad agency staffers caught in flagrate delicto on the infamous Ad Agency Sex Tape last week have been fired. They also note the widespread rumor that the ad agency in question is Atmosphere BBDO. The agency declined to comment to us. In an anonymous interview last week, a man claiming to be the cameraman of the sex tape said he was fired for filming it. We're working on confirming the truth of all this for you—more information TK.

Ads: they're everywhere! How many times must we repeat that pithy, insightful line? But it's true! Ads are on set-top box menus and the outsides of subway cars and inside your computer and strapped onto girls who are following you around. And every month or so ads appear in some new place and we think, "This, I fear, is the absolute pinnacle of psycho ad creep into every inappropriate nook of our lives." Well that was before teachers started selling advertising on their tests:

Here's Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Senator, in a campaign ad for tomorrow's runoff election to decide whether he'll keep his seat, groping his granddaughter. Video attached, natch.

Are you ready for a PR quiz? Okay! If you were a marketing executive at the nation's largest retailer, and an employee got trampled to death at the big holiday shopping sale at one of your stores, might you consider pulling an ad that trumpets your holiday sales with the line, "We're opening more lanes than ever to make Christmas shopping easier!" We're just saying. People could get the wrong idea about your stance on trampling. And Adrants points out that the ad below was still in heavy TV rotation throughout the entire weekend:

Men: is your hair clean enough to get you laid? While you've been working out to get ripped abs, has your unstyled, sweat-soaked hair been holding you back from sexing the women of your dreams? No, obviously not. Your lack of money has been holding you back. But Axe, maker of horrifying adolescent body spray and even more horrifying publicity stunts, is going to convince you otherwise! Because that's what Axe does: steadily erode any semblance of dignity the American male may possess. In the grand emasculating tradition of fancy men's underwear, get ready for Axe male hair care products—the new thing that you must have in order to get chicks, bro!

Poor General Motors Corp may not be around forever if certain auto dealers on a bus ride cannot persuade the federal government to give the failing company $25 billion. Sad! Remember when GM cars ruled the roads, America ruled the world, and men were men? Those were the days. We've collected a gallery of ten classic GM ads from the good old days of the 1930s, to remind you of what once was, and what shall never be again. Weep for your autos:

Are you ready to sit at home eating leftovers and viewing the internet? The Friday after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day! It's the day when lefties around the world celebrate being broke by abstaining from capitalism for a day and feeling superior, while the rich run wild on pre-Christmas sales. It's a nice thought and many of you would probably theoretically support it, but, you know... sales. This year, however, the anarchist types have an extra incentive: nobody has any money to spend anyhow!

Yesterday when we posted the infamous ad agency sex tape, our video department thoughtfully censored the clip by superimposing a Thanksgiving turkey over the center of the action. This led to a smorgasboard (HEH) of Thanksgiving-themed jokes in the comments. So in honor of our peerless commenters, and because it's the afternoon before Thanksgiving, we're posting the best (?) below. Vote in the comments for the one that makes you groan the least:

The ad agency employee who filmed two of his coworkers screwing in the office is obviously not shy (notwithstanding the end of his infamous video clip, where he runs away). He's keeping his name anonymous, but other than that he seems happy to talk. If you believe the claims of people using pseudonyms, the intrepid cameraman was chattering away in the comments section at Agency Spy; he emailed us yesterday, (Correction: the person who emailed us was a distributor of the clip, not the cameraman), saying "It's been a very fun 48 hours"; and he gave an interview to Asylum about how his cinematic work got him (unjustly?) fired: He says that late Friday afternoon, he and two coworkers gathered around to watch these people fucking in the office. He was recording the clip on his cell phone, and the other two were taking photos.