Any name will do as long as it’s Joshua

The world of branding never ceases to amaze even the most cynical among us. Newly formed integrated communications consultancy Joshua has decided each of its 205 employees should adopt that name during working hours.

Maybe it’s taking the old maxim ‘our people are our brand’, a little too seriously.

The adoption of a communal name is nothing new. Royal Institute of British Architects council veteran Francis Brown, for example, pledged with a few teenage mates to adopt the name Jake, in honour of ‘a madcap motorcyclist we decided to call Jake’, says the 73-year-old Francis. Or Jake, as he prefers to be known.