I ticked a lot of people off by publishing this press release on April 1, 2000, during the height of our (successful) campaign to take Dr. Laura Schlessinger off TV. You wouldn't believe how many people thought this was for real.
NEWS from StopDrLaura.com
April 1, 2000
STOPDRLAURA.COM TO LAUNCH IPO
Stock Offering to Raise $100m to Fight Paramount, Dr. Laura
WASHINGTON, DC - Capitalizing on its incredible success to date, the StopDrLaura.com Web site announced today that it will issue $100 million in stock to finance its ongoing battle against Paramount Television and the Dr. Laura TV show. The unprecedented homosexual initial public offering (HIPO) is to be the first of its kind in Wall Street history.
"With 15 million hits in only four weeks, we knew we had to act fast," said John Aravosis, spokesman for StopDrLaura.com, and the new Chairman of the Board of StopDrLaura.com Industries. "The initial public offering will allow StopDrLaura.com to hire 100 new staff, hold daily protests outside Paramount, and frankly get filthy rich."
The StopDrLaura.com Web site and coalition was launched on March 1, 2000 to galvanize opposition to Paramount Television's announced intent to produce the Dr. Laura Schlessinger television show this fall. Schlessinger has referred to gays and lesbians as "biological errors," sexual deviants, and pedophiles. Since its inception, the Web site has had over 700,000 visitors, and has sent over 17,000 email protest messages to Paramount.
In spite of the sudden and quite public success of StopDrLaura.com, many analysts worry about the earnings potential of a company that doesn't really exist - StopDrLaura.com is nothing more than 8 friends working for free out of their homes. Aravosis dismissed such concerns.
"We're the 'Seinfeld' of Web sites," said Aravosis, referring to the hit NBC show that had no real substance.
"StopDrLaura.com is the natural next step in the e-commerce revolution," he says. "If Amazon.com can make the cover of 'Time' by never making a dime, imagine the success we can have by never even existing!"
After StopDrLaura.com goes public this summer, Aravosis says the coalition plans to branch out into Web sites targeting other questionable TV "doctors," including StopDrDrew.com and StopDrBombay.com.
