Marcus writes that a webpage called Sheriffbilen (the Sheriff’s car) promotes a sticker in the form of the license plate belonging to Peter Eriksson, spokesperson for the Swedish Green Party. The web page is a protest against Eriksson’s role in the launch of a road toll and congestion charging scheme in Stockholm, due to start in January. As a member of the Swedish Parliament, Eriksson is excluded from paying the toll and the web page encourages people to order a free sticker and put it on their own license plate (it doesn’t spell it out, but what other reason is there?), something that is of course illegal. There is a disclaimer on the site that the sticker cannot be used on a license plate (duh!).
The person behind the site seems to be a former PR consultant, the otherwise brilliant lobbyist Martin Borgs. To order a sticker you are supposed to send a stamped envelope to Martin Borgs, Box 15411, 104 65 Stockholm. This is the PO box of the PR agency Hill & Knowlton in Sweden, Borgs’ previous employer. Hill & Knowlton is a member of the WPP Group, one of the world’s largest communications services companies which is listed on Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange. If we put the “Sheriff site” in that perspective, it is highly inappropriate for a listed company to let it’s post box be used in acts that border on encouragement of criminal behavior. To be honest, I don’t think Hill & Knowlton are aware of this site.
Hat tip to Urban Lindstedt.
Update: After reading my post, H&K; asked Borgs to stop using the PO box for this campaign and the site has now been updated with a new address. Clearly, Hill & Knowlton had nothing to do with the site.