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A brand hijack is an attempt to infuse a message as related to a brand. Often times companies do this internally or accidentally. Sometimes it starts from an external source. Most of the times it is viral. Rarely it is organized. Our goal is to takeover search results and word of mouth for the TrustyPig brand in order to communicate our message to any of TrustyPig’s potential customers.

So this is a call to action - a socially organized brand hijack - against TrustyPig. Why? Identity Theft - TrustyPig stole the online branding of SmartyPig, a Des Moines based web startup whose service is a “social savings bank”. TrustyPig blatantly stole SmartyPig’s Happy Cog designed website - logo and all.

Here are 10 ways for you to participate in our TrustyPig social brand hijack…

1. Blog about it (with “TrustyPig” in the title of the post and DON’T LINK TO THEM)
2. Link to others that blog about it (we’ll keep an updated list of links here)
3. Digg It
4. Discuss on twitter using #hijacktrustypig hashtag
5. Join the FriendFeed discussion
6. Clip on SocialMedian
7. Stumble It
   
8. Save to Delicious and Magnolia
9. Leave comments on blogs with reviews about about TrustyPig
10. Tell people about it

Help spread the message!

Technorati Tags: trustypig, smartypig, brand hijack

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A local Des Moines web startup, SmartyPig, recently had their entire web design ripped off by a Romanian company called TrustyPig that apparently is an “all inclusive traffic and income generating program”.

Here is a screenshot of SmartyPig’s website - the legitimate (and awesome) service…

And here is a screenshot of TrustyPig’s website - the copier

Our local Des Moines entrepreneur community is not happy about it.

SmartyPig had this to offer to its followers on Twitter…

B aware of trustypig.com. We are in NO Way affiliated with this Romanian ad outfit. Not sure what they are up to. But they have good taste.

Michael Ferrari also let his Twitter followers in on the scam:

Yes, a Romanian company [url removed by me] has ripped off @smartypig. Logo, CSS and all. And this is flattery right?

Other Coverage of TrustyPig Ripoff

• Troy Rutter - Romanian Company Rips Off Smartypig.com Design
• JustBrady - TrustyPig.com?

Follow the TrustyPig discussion

Follow the discussion on Twitter using the #hijacktrustypig hashtag

FriendFeed discussion here

Clip it on SocialMedian here

Digg this here.

photos courtesy Troy Rutter

Technorati Tags: trustypig, smartypig, ripoff, #hijacktrustypig

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