• by Masha Geller , August 6, 2001

This, quite possibly, is the most ridiculous piece of news to cross my desk in the past few months.

PRIMEDIA'S americanbaby.com, the online resource for pregnancy and parenting advice, today announced the results of a recent online poll where almost half of the poll's respondents said they'd consider accepting money from corporations in exchange for naming rights to their baby.

The americanbaby.com poll asked 600 respondents if they would accept $500,000 from a corporation to name their baby "Kraft," "Coke," or something similar... like "Volkswagen."

Ready for this? The results found that a whopping 21% would accept the offer to sell a corporation naming rights to their child, with another 28% saying they would consider it.

"Considering the concerns many parents express about kids and their exposure to commercials, we were shocked by the results of this poll" said Dottie Enrico, director of online content for PRIMEDIA's americanbaby.com.

But wait, it gets better! The poll was developed in response to a recent online auction posted on Yahoo! and eBay in which expectant parents in New York state offered to sell naming rights to their child to a corporation.

The minimum bid was a measly $500,000.

Thankfully, the child - born last week - was named Zane yesterday due to a lack of bidders. Under New York State law August 6, 2001 was the deadline to put a first name on the boy's birth certificate.