State Farm recalls defective promotional teddy bears

MSNBC announced today that State Farm was recalling 800,000 cheap, Chinese-made promotional "Good Neigh Bears" it handed out between 2005 and 2007.  The plush toys do not comply with standards requiring the elimination of detachable choking hazards and had already been recalled by Health Canada.  State Farm's subsequent recall was instituted in agreement with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.  Kind of ironic when a company that advertises its concern for safety and touts itself as a good neighbor resorts to handing out cheap, unsafe foreign imports as a promotion, don't you think?  It's another example of the need for consumers to distinguish between these large corporations' marketing identity and reality:  Allstate may be the best example of the chasm that may lie between the two.