Still think San Leandro is virtually unknown to the outside world? Well, think again.

The city's unconventional marketing campaign to attract folks to downtown, aptly called "I Am San Leandro," apparently is attracting some unconventional interest.

A LiveJournal blogger recently wrote an entry about his fascination with one of the marketing campaign's tools. In the entry, he stated that he had been at a restaurant in Berkeley and noticed a small cut-out of a man used for the "I Am San Leandro" campaign (pictured above). Then he went on to say that he was so fascinated by the cut-out, he decided to name it "San Leandro" because, on the back, it read "I Am San Leandro." The next part is too hilarious to summarize. He went on to say:

I have been carrying him around in my backpack ever since, trying to decide what to do with him, and my current trip to Palm Desert has finally given me the answer. So, much like the Travelling Gnome and other such efforts, I have taken on the wholly unoriginal task of carrying San Leandro with me, taking photos whenever I can be bothered to remember it and hopefully not destroying his fragile paper body in the process. Wish him luck.

Unbeknownst to the blogger, the cut-out is not just some random piece of paper. It is actually a photo of a real person. In fact, it is San Leandro planner Elmer Penaranda. That was supposed to be the whole point of the marketing campaign: to show folks not familiar with San Leandro what the city is all about and that all kinds of people live and work there.

But I guess the blogger didn't quite get that point. Instead, he wrote that he will be taking his "little San Leandro" along with him on various trips for a few "traveling gnome"-type photo ops.

At least San Leandro is getting some props. But it makes one wonder: Are the people this marketing campaign was hoping to target — retailers — getting it?