The most ridiculous agency names in adland
When deciding on a clever name for an agency, adland creatives would do well to heed this lesson from way back in 1993.
Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, which melded the male and female symbols into one glyph.
Aside from having no name, the symbol was also impossible to replicate on a traditional keyboard, forcing Warner Bros to send out a floppy disc to media outlets containing a font with only one symbol: Prince’s new name.
Seems many of these agencies have been – and continue to be – extremely successful despite their supposed naming crimes. What a non article.
Clearly written by one of the named agencies 😉
Was my fave. VMLY&R is a close second. Also surprised Bear Meets Eagle on Fire didn’t rate a mention for overall name length and absurdity. Surely a contender.
John Bevins Pty Limited was such an imaginative name.
Lol. You should probably put yourselves on the list, given this publication started life as mUmBRELLA, and over the years has been responsible for the likes of:
* Mumbrella neXt/ NeXt Awards
* mUmBRELLA CommsCon
* Mumbrella BEFest Awards / BEFEST Awards
How’s the outraged ad people being outraged at a pretty light and harmless blog about funny names.
Slow news day.
A few years ago there was a marketing agency called Pirate Pee Argh in Sydney. Maybe it was the bad pun or the use of “Pee” in the brand name but either way, unsurprisingly, it folded.
If you’re running out of things to do Dr Mumbo, you could always clean out the office fridge or water the plants. Make yourself useful!
Love the new editorial direction Mumbrella is taking after recent departures.
agreed!
How’s about you start up as “HowMuchIsAKiloOfButterWorth”. It would stick.
How ridiculous! They dont even wear them. Oh wait thats mine. Oops. Ah well. Can I join the list now? 🙂
UDKU KPMG where I worked on UNSW!
Is Dr Mumbo 10 years old?
this feels like a blog post and i like it
Not many people know this but TBWA is actually pronounced “Tea-bah-wah”. They love it when people use it in meetings, plus it’s fun to say.
A part of Accenture Song
This is as ridiculous as an accountancy magazine having a pop at names like PwC, KPMG, EY. How can a media/advertising title not know the history of these famous agency names: VMLY&R / PHD / OMD / DDB / TBWA?
Feels like you should have saved this one for that weird period between Christmas and New Years. Non article on a slow news day. But I agree with Anonymous 10 Oct 23 that the editorial direction has improved recently. Love the one on Nup to the Cup. Keep up the good work and save these ones for an Xmas special. Maybe ‘Mumbrella’s X-Mas LOLganza: A Yuletide Yarn of Marketing Madness’ to keep up the tradition that A shiny black kettle pointed out.
Mumbrella again just having a go for the sake of having a go.
What happened to real news
Atkins & Atkins….when there was only ever the 1 Atkins present (the great Michael Atkins) was a beauty
My favourite has always been “ABKP & Friends”, which stood for Alexander Bird Kulmar Porra & Friends. And they say there are no egos in advertising!
whats disappointing to me is the amount of times mumbrella won’t share our work but will spend time posting this. sounds about self-fulfiling if you ask me.
There are so many more agencies with differentiating names, this list could be endless. Feels like a slow news day at Mumbrella, Dr Mumbo.
The best writing on Mumbrella in some time.
I♥U Doctor.