At seven days, it probably counts as Labour's fastest U-turn. Last Friday, the Department of Trade and Industry was rebranded as the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry.
Today, its new secretary of state, Alan Johnson, scrapped the renaming, saving the taxpayer an estimated six-figure sum and keeping the old DTI name.
His reason was that - despite the zappy, upbeat thrusting forth of "productivity" into a Whitehall department for the first time - DPEI had attracted too many negative connotations. Or, in Mr Johnson's words (which will give armchair Freudians food for thought) it attracted "various descriptions … penis and dippy".
It's not the first time acronyms have been the government's Achilles heel. Last year, the then home secretary, David Blunkett, attracted ridicule for his bill creating a "British FBI", under the aegis of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, or SOCA. Pundits pointed out that SOCA sounded more Roy of the Rovers than FBI.
Nor is it the first time an unfortunate name change at the DTI has made the headlines – readers may remember that, when Michael Heseltine got the post after his unsuccessful challenge for the Tory leadership, he dropped the secretary of state title and revived the more grandiose 19th century "President of the Board of Trade".
But if new boy Mr Johnson thinks DPEI is too redolent of "penis", that's nothing to the Whitehall mandarins charged with the renaming, a few years ago, of the Royal Ulster Constabulary under a review by Chris Patten.
After much head-scratching, it was finally decided that the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was sufficiently far removed from the dreaded five-letter word to avoid confusion.
Of course, people these days tend to go about acronyms in a topsy-turvey fashion – coming up with a name and then finding an acronym to fit it rather than simply taking the first letters.
Hands up who can remember what the name of George Galloway's R.E.S.P.E.C.T. coalition actually stands for? (the answer is Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community, Trade Unionism – although literally, of course, that would give you RESPECTU).
Perhaps the most ridiculous example of taking "acronym-itis" too far is provided by the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.
Or the USA Patriot Act, for short …
