NOT everything in black and white makes sense - or so the current Guinness marketing campaign would have us believe.

And there were plenty of believers at yesterday's unveiling of DIAGEO, the new brand to consummate the #24bn marriage of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan creating one of the world's largest drinks companies.

Consultants Wolff Olins have been paid nearly #250,000 to put together the Latin word for day and the Greek for the world to capture ''what this company is all about''.

However, most scholars believe the Latin for day is dies but then image making does not necessarily need to be that accurate.

A resigned sounding public relations man at Guinness was anxious to point out that Diageo would not appear on any bottles and would be used only by the parent company for corporate purposes.

Much the same expression of relief was expressed when Diageo was released to an unsuspecting Stock Exchange where it was greeted with a moment of stunned silence. Then came the inevitable questions as to whether it was something one caught on holiday, or was it the cure, or could it be the name of an Argentinian football player.

This was followed by the compulsory promotional video which showed young people engaged in various activities with great vigour, although quite what was not always clear. However as they went about their daily lives they managed to sink 10 million shots of Johnnie Walker or 14 million measures of Smirnoff vodka while scoffing 14 million biscuits and finding room for four million Burger Kings.

Depressingly no-one over the age of 25 seems to live in the world of Diageo - the accent is on the A, apparently.

Other companies have successfully reinvented themselves such as Esso becoming Exxon and Woolworth turning into Kingfisher.

The deal is planned to go ahead in January: shareholders will get a chance to vote on the change of name at the same time as they vote on the merger.