'Agenda' is likely name for merged Age Concern and Help the Aged

A spokesman from the merged charities confirmed that Agenda was under active consideration. "It is being looked at and staff have been consulted on it," he said. But no final decision has been taken yet.

The article then went on to say that brand consultancy Corporate Edge was hired in January to create the new identity. Chris Wood, its chair, said older people's needs would be central to the branding strategy.

The final sentence made me rock with laughter: “The merged charity's spokesman said it had so far paid Corporate Edge less than £100,000.”

How long is it going to take some wag in the press to work out that this exercise has cost about £17,000 per character. If you take out the word Age, that had to appear in the new name, then the new characters “nda” cost £30,000 each.

I know, I know , I know that is not how branding exercises work but for the sake of the charity I just hope the press understand that, especially if the launch is laced with rumours of job redundancies and cuts in services.

So let’s also hope the press office is up to all of these angles and has its strategies in place to douse them before they gather pace and ignite into a major story.

Agenda.com, agenda.co.uk, agenda.org.uk are all sites that are registered but not being used. Let’s hope that one, or all of them, is owned by the new charity. Dick Stroud