Ex-Mad Dogs Executives Freelance at Atkins

NEW YORK Atkins Nutritionals, the client whose budget cuts sealed the fate of Mad Dogs & Englishmen, will not begin looking for a new agency until early 2006, the company said.

The company rode the popularity of its high-protein diet to a peak last year, when it spent about $30 million on ads, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. When the Atkins brand cooled, however, the company could not commit to a 2005 ad budget, leading to the demise of the New York independent that had come to rely on the business.