Last week the nation was driven crazy by a frog on an invisible motorbike and as usual the internet was to blame.

The first advertisements for the Crazy Frog ringtone started hitting our television screens a few weeks ago. At first it was amusing, but then it soon turned ugly, when we realised there was no escape.

The frog's masters, ringtone company Jamster, carpet bombed just about every commercial channel over most of the weekend resulting in us all involuntarily humming "ding ding dinga ding ding" in the shower on Monday morning.

By Friday, even my vegetarian friends wanted to see that frog in a liquidiser.

Invented by a 17-year-old Swedish computer salesman, the frog's signature twostroke engine noise first found fame on the internet back in 2001. The frog took 3D form in 2002 but remained an amusing online advert for CGI company TurboForce 3D.

At this stage mental health outside Sweden had not been affected. But then German company, Jamba, spotted it in 2004 and thought that it would make a catchy ringtone, bought all the rights and spawned the Crazy Frog.

Eleven million downloads latter the Crazy Frog is the number one ringtone in Europe.

His dance music CD is has reached number 1 in the UK singles chart, too.

We are used to seeing top ten singles becoming ringtones but the Crazy Frog is the first to reverse the trend and move from phone to CD.

Which isn't surprising, as ringtone sales now outstrip UK singles sales at around £300 million a year. It seems a ringtone top ten ranking is worth more than being top-of-the-pops!

This could have a lot to do with the music download revolution and the widespread piracy that goes with it. Ringtones are harder to copy from phone to phone and given their low price it probably isn't worth the effort.

Jamster has spent an estimated £14 million on its television advertising campaign for the Crazy Frog, hoping to improve on the £10 million it has raked in so far.

But all it has succeeded in doing is making viewers hopping mad.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been inundated with hundreds of complaints about the TV campaign. Sadly the body can only control the content of advertisements, not the frequency at which they are played.

But who is buying the Crazy Frog ringtone and CD? Children to annoy their parents perhaps?

"There should be a law to stop organisations from extracting money from minors through their mobile phone," I hear you parents shout.

The internet is to blame for all this, of course. The frog would have stayed in Scandinavia, had it not being for the Net. The Net has effectively made the world one big pond.

* Chris is managing director of internet consultancy webxpress. This and other unedited articles can be found at webxpress.com. Email: chris@webxpress.com