Have you ever looked at some of the alphabet-soup names of creative agencies and wondered whether one was meant to be read as an acronym or a string of letters? Well, if so, this short video is not the best way to figure it out.

“The Agency Pronunciation Guide” is a one-joke video, sure, but it’s a pretty decent joke. Logos for most of the top agencies are displayed in the center of the screen, Sesame Street-style, before a narrator grossly mispronounces each and every one of them. TBWA/ for instance is revealed to be sounded out as “tub-wah slashie.”





The point of the video, and likely identity of its creator only comes at the very end. The last of the 19 agencies is the only one that actually requires a bit of guesswork or familiarity in order to pronounce it (and it’s the one that’s pronounced correctly). Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors, which currently features the video on its Facebook page, uses a sample sentence in which you might use the name: “Forsman & Bodenfors is a Swedish agency often mispronounced.”

While we’re on the subject of agency names, though, do have a look at the infographic below, created by British creative team Rob & Joe (Rob Donaldson and Joe Dennett), which provides a neat taxonomy of all agency names great and small.



