The World: Long comes out fighting for the micro-networks.

Reaction to the scaling back of Naked's Eastern ambitions suggests that the end is nigh for the little guy.

For an agency as sure-footed about its PR as Naked Communications, recent events have proved oddly compelling. Specifically in Australia, where the agency suddenly parted company with its Asia-Pacific chief executive, Mat Baxter - the 30-year-old wunderkind who had, in five years, led Naked's successful charge Down Under and looked set to replicate the trick across the rest of that region.

Instead, Baxter left amid the type of controversy that Naked has often proved adept at maximising on behalf of its clients.

A trademark media stunt for the fashion brand Witchery, involving a fake video starring a model pretending to look for love, turned sour when journalists complained that they, and members of the public, had been hoodwinked.

While Baxter and Naked's chief executive, Nigel Long, have publicly denied that the spat was a factor in the Australian's departure, the timing of events (Baxter left just days after ads in the national press revealed the stunt was a fake) has …