Curry is crying -- Lusty Colombian babes find sugar daddy...

...and a modern viral campaign ...and a classic bait-n-switch.

(UPDATED with semidupliclaim and links!) Advertising agencies in Bogota are a busy lot. When theyˆre not plotting razor-sharp campaigns for the local cocaine cartels, fleeing from kidnappers, contracting death squads to take out their competition and bribing local authorities to look the other way, they occasionally find time to work on an honest-to-goodness project or two.

Concocting the dreamy bachellionaire Bob Harris was one such campaign, sans the honesty...and the goodness. "For a few giddy weeks, a rich American bachelor named Bob Harris was the fantasy of legions of Colombian women -- and even a few men.

"Six thousand sent e-mails and checked him out on the Internet.

"Five times that many dialed a toll-free number, pining to meet the blond, tanned executive who raced cars, abstained from vice, and sought a Colombian bride to share his lonely mansion in Virginia.

"Alas, none of it was true, the heartbroken masses found out this week.

"The adventurous man whose Web site, television spots and magazine and newspaper classifieds exalting Colombian women's "latin flavor" was the invention of a deceptive advertising campaign to sell cars."

For the full Salon/AP story, go HERE

(UPDATE) And here's the Bob Harris Web site.

Hmmm.... Do you suspect that perhaps somebody was just a weeeeeee bit inspired by the Buddy Lee "Suger Greg, Curry and Roy" viral campaign? Methinks we may have a dupliclaim here on some level or another. - Clay

Somewhere, a Curry is crying.

NIFTY NOTE: For you non-Spanish-speaking types, cut'n'paste the Bob Harris Web site address into the "Web site" option at Babelfish for an amusing Spanglish translation. (Be sure to choose "Spanish into English" in the drop down menu.)