RSA is bumflap of online insurers

Insurer Royal & SunAlliance is in the doghouse after its missing pooch marketing campaign designed to promote its new Web site upset small children and council officials.

Parts of London were splattered with posters asking if people had seen "Lucky the Dog" (an Airedale/collie cross) who was reportedly missing.

RSA's call centre received more than 20,000 calls and the whereslucky.com Web site received many more visitors in response to the plea. But many were upset when they found out this was just a stunt.

Some parents even complained that their children were distressed by the posters of the "missing" mutt, admitted a spokeswoman for the insurer.

And it gets worse. Officials at Westminster City Council have got the huff with RSA for fly-posting - an act that can carry a fine of £1,000 per poster if the offending items aren't removed.

The actions of RSA were branded as "irresponsible back-street tactics" by Westminster City Council, according to This Is London.

A spokeswoman for RSA said the posters were already being removed and that the campaign was merely a teaser for the start of a TV ad campaign for its new batch of online insurance services.

Oh, just in case this story wasn't techie enough for you, here's something to lift the spirits. "MORE TH>N", the typographically eccentric name for RSA's new retail Web site is based on the InterX Net2020 content management software platform. Apparently.

Back to corporate stunts: in April IBM was caught tagging the streets of San Francisco. And
Last year boo.com received a slap for littering London with little stickers advertising its Web site. In fact, after we ran the story a whole load of stickers mysteriously appeared in Maddox Street, the home of Vulture Central. Bless. ®