Manhattan Beach–After reading Ad Age’s glowing article on TBWA’s Media Arts Lab this week, ad agency G&M Plumbing has decided to change its name to G&M Plumbing Media Arts Lab. According to the article, TBWA’s Media Arts Lab does things like make MySpace pages for iPods and supports communication between creatives, account people and strategic planners. Says a G&M representative, “We figured, we do that stuff as well, so maybe we too are a Media Arts Lab!”

G&M hopes the name change could garner the kind of press TBWA has gotten for their “agency of the future” model. “Apparently it’s not about doing something different,” said an anonymous G&M creative. “It’s about giving the process a name and being all secretive about it. Which is so much easier.”

Other agencies may follow suit. “The digital people sit near the account people? The planners are within eyesight of the creatives? If a new seating chart is all it takes to get a feature article in Ad Age, then count us in,” noted a Managing Director at an undisclosed agency.

The shift towards creating a new name for something agencies do on a regular basis isn’t new. “Nearly every agency worth its salt has a catchy name for things like strategic planning and idea creation,” said an industry insider. “TBWA took it a step further and created a whole new agency. You gotta hand it to them, though. The whole high security and smoky doors thing is a nice touch.”