
A parody website that makes fun of the AKQA-Grey merger has emerged online.
The site, aptly named , describes itself as 鈥渘ot the combined agency website of ad juggernauts Grey & AKQA鈥.
Instead, the spoof GreyKQA website, which features a gif of Dr Evil from the Austin Powers movies overlaid with the word 鈥#digital鈥, reads: 鈥淎fter 103 years WPP decided to 86 one of advertising's best.
鈥淭hey 'merged' the name & reign over to rock solid digital house AKQA.鈥
This is in reference to WPP's plans to聽merge AKQA and Grey to form AKQA Group.
When the merger was first revealed by聽颁补尘辫补颈驳苍听on 11 November, WPP said it was designed to聽鈥渙ffer clients outstanding creativity, innovation and brand-building at global scale鈥.
WPP added two days later that it will聽keep the Grey brand 鈥渇or some time鈥, in response to media coverage suggesting that the agency鈥檚 name was being retired immediately in favour of AKQA.
The parody site says that the official website for the combined group can be found at AKQA.com and "not at AKQGrey.com or AKQAGroup.us" --聽鈥渂ecause consultants鈥.
That's thought to be a reference to how consultants have advised WPP on restructuring.
The pranksters, who have not disclosed their identity, have also created spoof social-media accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, with a profile picture of former WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, who now runs S4 Capital.
The parody Twitter account is named @AkqaGroup, which could be awkward for the newly merged company.聽
WPP declined to comment.
S4 Capital also declined to comment while indicating that the company has no involvement in the parody.