sql error

[Jeff Thies]

I'm drawing a blank on an error I'm getting inserting a "date"
(2001070112:00:00) into a varchar field.

Cannot execute: You have an error in your SQL syntax near ':00:00)' at
line 1 

my $sql=q{INSERT INTO some_table(the_date) values(?)};
my $sth=$dbh->prepare($sql);
$sth->execute($the_date) || die "Cannot execute: $DBI::errstr\n";

What could be wrong?

Jeff