We don’t have many web 2.0 products coming out of Des Moines these days (you can read my commentary about that here). So when something hideous and wrong happens to one of our few entrepreneurial successes, we take notice, and we do something about it.

Des Moines-based SmartyPig is a site where you can start a goal-oriented savings account that friends and family can contribute to. It’s a great concept with a fantastic web presence, and is also backed by FDIC. Here’s SmartyPig’s website.

Great, right? Of course it’s great.

Well, here’s the website of Romania-based TrustyPig, which apparently is some sort of scam advertising platform. How do I know it’s probably a scam? Would a legitimate company steal another site’s design, right down to the CSS and logo?

It’s disgusting, and we Iowans will not stand for it, and we’re hoping some of you non-Iowans won’t stand for it, either. Troy Rutter was the first to let us know about this (I think), and since then, Andy Brudtkuhl has started a merciless brand hijacking campaign that so far has yielded excellent results:

To see how this works, I’ve attached a screenshot of the Google results of my attempt at brand hijack via blogging. Notice I’m #2 behind the target brand when searching on Google – exactly where I want to be. Also notice the message I’ve attached to the brand. Success.

I don’t know what the eventual result of this campaign will be. I doubt we can convince TrustyPig to see the error of its ways and take down the site design. I also don’t think we will be successful in getting the site or its “service” completely shut down (and no, I wouldn’t support a series of DDOS attacks against this company). I suppose at the very least, just getting people informed about TrustyPig’s completely unacceptable practice of site design stealing will be enough. In the end, after all the hoopla, I just hope we’ve done enough brand damage to cause the site to fade into obscurity.