If the controversial "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger television show airs this fall, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is seeing to it that the program's
advertisers know what they are buying into. With the backing of mainstream organizations like the National Mental Health Association (NMHA), the National Organization for Women
(NOW) and the National Conference for Community and Justice, GLAAD is exploiting the advertising pulpit to get potential advertisers and TV station managers to avoid Dr. Laura's
TV show like the plague. Its print campaign uses Dr. Laura's own inflammatory statements from her radio show to make the argument that she is offensive to gays, single mothers and
nontraditional families. It wraps up by warning advertisers that "consumers judge brands by the company they keep."
"Our primary goal is making sure that advertisers aren't making blind buys when it comes to buying space in Dr. Laura's program," says Steve Spurgeon, who headed up GLAAD's in-
house $200,000 advertising campaign. The campaign ran in print titles widely read by advertising executives, including Advertising Age, Ad Week, Daily Variety, Broadcasting &
Cable, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The campaign was timed to run around May 30, the eve of the Las Vegas meeting of CBS affiliates who are obligated to air the
show produced by Paramount Domestic Television. Although GLAAD could have focused the campaign exclusively on Dr. Laura's gay-bashing remarks, Spurgeon says that it was important
to show the other groups that the outspoken host alienates. This tactic allowed the campaign to have more mainstream sympathizers, says Lindy Garnette, NMHA's director of child
and family mental health services.
The message that NMHA is most concerned with driving home is that homosexuality is not a mental disorder. Since viewers may be unaware that Dr. Laura is neither a psychologist
nor a psychiatrist, NMHA has seized every opportunity it has had with the media to set the record straight that Dr. Laura's statements are not consistent with widely held mental
health views of professional organizations.
Although the campaign can't be credited yet with convincing advertisers to pull their ads from the program, it has ignited a media buzz about how concerned advertisers should
be with controversial program content. "Entertainment Tonight" and other entertainment-style programs have covered GLAAD's campaign and the issue has generated op-ed ink from
several newspapers. Coincidentally, Procter & Gamble announced its intentions to withdraw sponsorship from the program shortly before GLAAD's campaign launched. And soon after
the campaign, an article in Daily Variety reported that unnamed sources indicated that AT&T and American Express would not be buying ad time during the TV show. AT&T and
American Express spokespeople will neither confirm nor deny this claim.
(GLAAD, Steve Spurgeon, 323/658-6775; NMHA, Lindy Garnette, 703/837-4797)