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Damn, didn't see that coming. Apparently, Starbucks lost to Dunkin' Donuts in a taste test, proving (in DD's words) that America really does run on Dunkin. Studiocom built a Web site extolling the win, dunkinbeatstarbucks dot com, and you can learn all about the whole thing there.

Here's the basic run-down. People were given samples of both coffees. They chose Dunkin' more often than they chose Starbs. The end. Check out the pretty awesome gloating, after the jump.

More: "New Agency Alert Via Starbucks"

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AdWeek Media Group will be implementing a new strategy, according to the company, which includes (most importantly) layoffs. In a long, drawn out post on AdWeek dot com, the company said one salient thing;

"With this new strategy, the Adweek Media Group will eliminate some editorial positions and reassign editorial coverage responsibilities, enabling delivery of a broader and more diverse amount of content to their collective audiences.

'As we reorganize our team, we will continue to invest in areas of high growth opportunity, including digital technology and staff, and develop new products and services to serve our readers and advertisers,'" said Sabrina Crow senior vice president of the marketing, media and visual arts group.

Gawker broke the story earlier today, but AdWeek published the statements above.

Apparently, so far 19 positions have been eliminated company-wide.

More: "Ch-Ch-Changes: New Editor At Adweek"

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It's getting exhausting to constantly be the bearer of bad news on the layoff front. We all know it's happening, everywhere, and so in that way it's not really new — except that we do need to hear about it. Why? Because you're the only ones who can stop it.

Many of you are influential members of your respective teams. You've built agencies, brands and a respectable corner in which to dwell. Isn't there something you can do, if you work together man!?

I'd rather be riffing about some great new initiative than telling you that TBWA/Chiat/Day New York apparently laid off like, 20 people more than a week ago, and that Ogilvy is apparently doing the same. Alas, there's no saving grace to speak of. Please inform me if I am wrong. If you're a part of a small shop that has an innovative way around laying people off e-mail us at matT@agencyspy dot com. Let's talk about something positive.

Oh, and apparently Goodby laid off 20 people last week too. And now I want to sleep. Deeply.

More: "Finally Some Good News: Guns N' Roses Needs an Agency"

The Wall Street Journal today reports low 3rd quarter ad sales for the national TV markets, specifically for Viacom (which projected a 3 percent loss for Q3) and CBS (predicted a jump from 14 to 18 percent down over Q3 2007).

"The disclosures come as ad executives are seeing more cuts in already-soft ad spending, as a result of the upheaval in global financial markets. 'We see reductions coming from all sectors,' said Maurice Levy, chief executive of Publicis Groupe SA, one of the world's largest ad-holding companies."

As a result, many of the holding companies are withholding their Q3 reports. No big surprise there, since local TV ad sales are down 4.4 percent over Q1/Q2 of this year. Sigh. Pair that with another WSJ story that indicates large ad-holding companies are tightening up in other areas as well, most importantly to you, personnel. Omnicom, Starcom MediaVest and Landor are mentioned, but look locally and you'll see a higher propensity of the same behavior in smaller markets.

Click "continued" to read on.

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More: "Say Bye-Bye: The Freelancer Crunch"

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