Fergus Cassidy

Warren peace

THAT Easter and April Fool's day fall in the same week is due to the vagaries of the lunar cycle and the proximity of both has been too much for some to resist.

"I will have this lovely rabbit for Easter Sunday's Dinner if my account doesn't show a balance of at least Euro1m by 27th March 2005!", screams the large print on the 'Save Bernd' website.

Bernd is a rabbit which the site owner (who calls himself C. Krohm) says he found "on a rainy and cold night underneath a banana box next to a bottle bank. He has now regained strength".

On receipt of the E1m, Bernd's rescuer promised not just to spare the rabbit but to also "give him to a bunny breeding farm where he can spend the rest of his life as playboy in a way that we would all be jealous of".

The original deadline for saving Bernd was 31 December last but was extended to today to "increase his chances of survival due to extensive pressure from the public".

Naturally it was nothing do with the fact that this prank had legs and the rays of web publicity were sufficient for Krohm to have his/her moment in the sun.

Ireland played no small part in walking the prank. According to the site, "Bernd's chances of survival increased dramatically due to the Irish Press since 30th August! Thanks to Dublin's FM104!".

That's what many site owners and web masters dream about. Making the leap from the new media into the old one. In musical terms, it would be called 'crossover'.

While there are plenty among the online community constantly railing against old media for one reason or another, there are plenty more who delight in its imprimatur. To see their name in print or hear it on the radio. Or the absolute pinnacle - to get on TV.

Thanks to the internet, millions of people can indeed visit a website but they first have to be able to single it out from the millions of others.

To do that requires savvy of how search engines operate and the finance to follow it through. The latter is out for the vast majority, so some mine the rich seam of human emotion to get keyboards hopping. Copycatting comes in useful as well.

Like all good rabbits, Bernd has bred many similar sites. The latest of which is SaveToby.com. The operator of this site says that he found Toby under his porch, soaking wet, injured from what appeared to be an attack from a cat.

Like Bernd, Toby's days are supposed to be numbered. "I will devour this little guy unless I receive $50,000 into my account from donations or purchase of merchandise", says the site owner. He has over 90 Toby-related products - mugs, t-shirts, mousepads etc - for sale through a third party. He also claims to have signed a book deal, scheduled for release later this year.

Unlike Bernd, however, it's not as easy to ascertain whether the alleged threat to Toby is real or the work of a marketing maverick or trickster. Some aren't taking any chances.

Online payments company PayPal pulled its facility. "I get a little sick to my stomach every time I look at that site", Amanda Pires told the Washington Post. "We have discontinued service."

SaveToby.com is registered with GoDaddy.com, and the site operator has opted for a guarantee of privacy service offered there. Bob Parsons, founder and president of GoDaddy.com, has come under serious pressure to take down the site.

In a blog posting on 12 March, Parsons said that "with the exception of a website that was racist in nature (which we immediately took down), we at GoDaddy.com have received more complaints about SaveToby.com than for any other website we've hosted.

"However, there is absolutely nothing illegal about the website and there is nothing in its contents that violates our terms of service agreement. Welcome to my world".

Indeed. So if I receive Euro10,000 by next Friday, I hereby solemnly promise to let the cat out of the bag and remove the frog from my throat.