Media Perspective: The last of the old guard moves on in a makeover for Carat.(Carat )

It was with some incredulity that I noticed the local betting shop had undergone a makeover. Gone was the old Stanley Racing logo, replaced by the new brand Stanley Bet in fresh green-and-white paint.

Probably a good move, but the old Stanley logo was an undoubted 70s classic.

So much so that the violent PlayStation game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas pays homage, with its 'Inside Track' betting shop carrying a very similar logo (as well as offering nags with 'amusing' names such as Yoghurt Cannon and Spam Javelin).

The old Carat brand was also a classic. Rough, tough and dangerous to know, Carat (born out of the old TMD) had the reputation of being the most aggressive agency in town (as well as one of the best).

Whether the brand perception ever matched the reality is another question, but when Carat's parent, Aegis, hired Nigel Sharrocks from Warner Brothers last year, you sensed that part of his brief was to modernise the agency.

Sharrocks replaced Mark Craze, one corner of the Carat UK 'old school' triangle completed by the former chairman, Ray Kelly, and the managing director, Colin Mills. Kelly left before Craze and this week we learned that the last of the three, Mills, has also departed.

Mills steps down after 11 years at the agency, six as managing director.