Rocks Off trolls Craiglist pretty regularly looking for interesting music projects to report on... or, barring that, complete lunatics to mock from up here on our high horse. Occasionally we crusade against scams that may take in trusting would-be rock stars looking for their big break, and that's what we thought we were dealing with when the headline of this ad promised us $5,000.

That turned out not too be the case. SafeAuto Insurance has been hosting their "Do the Jingle" contest for three years now, offering musicians a chance to do their own version of the policy-writers' advertising jingle. Public voting decides the winner in January, and the lucky songster walks away five Clevelands richer and an audience of millions via SafeAuto's commercials.

SafeAuto is looking for 30 to 60 second versions of their jingle, and are completely open to any and all categories and genres. Personally, we'd like to see Church ov Melkarth or Black Leather Jesus test their openness, however, SafeAuto assured us that their dedication to find homegrown and unsigned voices is sincere.

"We feel that local bands represent the cities that we travel to," says SafeAuto spokesman Jason Parks. "With our contest receiving over 1 million votes last year, our Do The Jingle Contest is also a great way for local bands to get additional exposure."

Entering the contest is done by appointment. SafeAuto's contest team will be visiting Houston this weekend. Interested parties can contact Parks by phone at 614-944-7306 or email at [email protected].

Last year the prize was taken by the Church Band out of Illinois, garnering almost a quarter of a million votes and winning by a very comfortable margin. Their commercial is below.

Interestingly enough, drummer William Burton had placed fourth in the previous year of the competition. Rather than keeping the money, the Church Band donated their winnings to the "Love In Action" Ministry, dedicated to providing food for poor people.

If there is a just God, we'll live to see Thunderkunt or the Stage Frights extolling the benefits of financial responsibility when driving in a 2012 commercial. Barring that, we'll take La Catrin.

Whoever it is, get to it, Houston. $5,000 buys an awful lot of Pez and beer.