State Farm recalls 800,000 promotional teddy bears

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the biggest property and casualty insurer in the U.S., will recall more than 800,000 toy bears given away by the company's agents because they pose a choking hazard.

The insurer, whose slogan is, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there," received one report of a so-called Good Neigh Bear losing a plastic eye, which a child placed in her mouth, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said today in a statement. The girl wasn't injured. The toys were made for the Bloomington-based insurer in China, according to the statement.

State Farm has to say "we're embarrassed by this thing, and we're going to stop it as quickly as we can," said Jack Trout, president of Trout & Partners Ltd, a marketing strategy firm. "I think if they move quickly and admit to the fact that this was just some silly promotional guy's dumb idea, I don't think it'll have a lasting impact."

Insurers including MetLife Inc., Axa SA and the Geico unit at Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. distribute plush toys to build goodwill. Axa, France's largest insurer, has a gorilla mascot. MetLife, the biggest U.S. life insurer, has the Snoopy dog, and Geico uses a green gecko.

Consumers should immediately take the bears from young children and can visit www.statefarm.com or call the insurer at (877) 226-8079 for more information, the statement said. The brown bears, with State Farm shirts, were distributed from September 2005 through March of 2007.

"Our first concern is for safety and for those children who may have come into contact or who may come into contact" with the bears, said State Farm spokesman Kip Diggs in a telephone interview. "We just want people to be safe."

State Farm, the largest insurer of U.S. homes and autos, is owned by its policyholders and has no publicly traded debt.