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hired 17 people who resigned en masse last month from the New York office of Saatchi & Saatchi, owned by an Interpublic competitor, the Publicis Groupe, where they had worked on the General Mills account.

Although the "Saatchi 17," as trade publications have labeled the executives, are not bringing the General Mills account with them, they will work at an agency Interpublic opened this week, specializing in advertising for products sold to children and families - like the cereal, dairy and snack brands they handled at Saatchi New York.

The "Saatchi 17" all left Feb. 14, three days after the agency announced that their boss, Mike Burns, global General Mills account director, would depart in mid-March. They soon signed letters of intent to join Interpublic, which led trade publications to speculate that the General Mills account would follow them there. General Mills, based in Minneapolis, said it was "looking forward to continuing" to work with Saatchi & Saatchi