Early insurance was primarily concerned with shipping losses and the estimation and verification of hull and cargo values would have been concluded on the dockside... au bord de l'eau.  It's obvious n'est pas?

Well, that's our little theory anyway.  We'd be delighted to hear if anybody has differing views.

At parties, in days gone, by I used to say that I was in IT - which was true - except everybody then wanted to talk about the problems they'd been having with their PC or, worse, their printer.  I then developed the self-preserving habit of declaring myself in IT, but with a strong insurance bias - which was true.  Most times this was not enough to put people off and we'd get around to their printer problems just a little later on.

Now I tell them that I'm in insurance - which is true - and if they don't recoil immediately, I add... commercial insurance.  If I like the look of them, then, obviously, I tell them something entirely different - which may not be true.

Anyway, the point is, that insurance people and social networking are unlikely bedfellows.  Indeed, given most people's reaction to the news that one is involved in insurance, it is a miracle that anybody within the industry ever marries outside of it, except to teachers, who often remain single up to an age at which they become desperate.

How insurance brokers can - or can't - exploit social networking sites for business purposes is a topic that we shall look at in more detail in due course.

Obviously it’s barking, but in a funny sort of a way I do quite like both the conceit of it, as well as the format. It was a great idea getting a Harry Hill lookalike to do the presentation as well.

The excruciating thing about it is that it will inevitably prompt a parade of insurance company executives to burn their ties and their marketing budgets on their very own groovy ‘vids’. Alas, they are unlikely to pull it off quite as well.

The premise of their TV campaign seems to be that Bruce Willis, Elle McPherson, Alice Cooper etc all changed their names from something awkward and prosaic to something with a little more sparkle... and thus progressed in life. Likewise, I suppose, Paul Gadd became Gary Glitter.

Historically too, I think they may have a point. Does Adolf Schicklgruber have quite the same ring to it as Hitler? It certainly does not. Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili is nearly unpronounceable, whereas Stalin rolls very easily off the tongue indeed. Also a brilliant bit of rebranding.

Whilst this whole campaign is likely to become the butt of considerable humour, I hope that this was part of the calculation, as it will only serve to spread the message further.