Friendly Insurance Agent Becomes Anthrax Fiend

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, Feb. 27, 2:42 p.m. EST?

"Before the mailing went out, everybody I'd talked to said itwas a really wonderful idea. They loved the letters?it just sohappened that the Tylenol pills got crushed and it went bad fromthere," Scott Welch, the owner of Welch Insurance Agency in BossierCity, La., told National Underwriter.

Mr. Welch explained he was trying to attract new customers whenhe mailed out hundreds of letters with a Tylenol tablet attachedinside, to emphasize his marketing pitch that buying insurance fromhis agency would relieve people of "insurance headaches."

"We had 300 letters sent out last Friday, and we found outsomething went wrong this Monday when people started receiving theletters," Mr. Welch said. "It was mailing that just went wrong whenit went through the mail service. We had Tylenol pills actuallyattached to the letters, but the pills got crushed in themail-service process," he said.

One company in Shreveport, La., which received the marketingletter this week, ended up calling 911. Investigators andhazardous-materials experts arrived at the scene, but they soondetermined that the suspicious powder was not a toxic substance."We were notified by someone who received the letter?plus therewere a fire chief and investigators there at the time as well," Mr.Welch said.

He emphasized, though, that nobody was upset, "because they knowit was an innocent mistake." The pills were just an eye-catcher, heexplained: "It was a way for us to say, ?here's how to solve one ofyour biggest headaches in regard to your insurance.'"

He said he doesn't think there is going to be any legal orregulatory consequences directed at this marketing mishap: "Atleast that's what I am hoping for. Hopefully this is overwith."