-By Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK Ad agencies often try to cultivate a relationship with the CEO of a company whose ad account they handle. This may be a futile task, though, as increasing numbers of CEOs bite the dust amid the current economic downturn.

A report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas says 125 chief executives left their posts in October, whether on their own steam or otherwise -- 30 percent higher than the number who did so the previous October. So far this year, there have been 1,257 CEO departures -- 10 percent more than was the case during the same period in 2007.

The report notes that the rough economy "appears to be condensing the amount of time CEOs last in the position."

Among last month's departing CEOs, tenure data was available for 55 of them. And a significant number of these people had scarcely gotten their executive chairs warm: "Nearly 22 percent of these CEOs were in their positions for less than 14 months," the survey says.