Several dozen Chicagoans marched outside CBS Channel 2 Chicago Sunday afternoon to protest the Monday start date of the nationally syndicated Dr. Laura TV show. Despite the months-long protest of Channel 2's decision to air the controversial talkshow host, the program did premiere in Chicago the following day, Sept. 11.
However, few nationally recognized businesses decided to risk alienating clients by purchasing airtime on the show, with many 800-number ads and other off-beat advertisers. The Chicago airing did have an ad for Chrysler/Plymouth, Eddie Z's blinds, Nationwide Insurance, Carmax, Summer's Eve, Brummer & Brown Yogurt Spread, Woodbridge Wines, Chicago Plastic Surgery Affiliates, and the Illinois Institute of Art.
StopDrLaura.com noted that "The Dr. Laura TV show debuted with only a handful of national advertisers, and with one major advertiser already dropping the show within two hours of its airing. Bally Total Fitness, the largest nationwide, commercial operator of fitness centers, ran an ad on the Dr. Laura TV show in Washington, D.C. [ Monday ] on the UPN affiliate, DC 20. After being contacted by StopDrLaura.com and informed of the controversy, Bally VP of Public Relations Dave Southern said that the company had no intention of running [ the ] advertisement on the Dr. Laura show, and that Bally was immediately requesting that the ad be pulled from all future Dr. Laura TV programming."
"Bally Total Fitness exercised good corporate citizenship in dumping the 'Dr. Laura' TV show," said StopDrLaura.com co-founder John Aravosis.
"Another sign of trouble for Schlessinger was that not only were most of her TV advertisers local in nature—a bad sign for the show, according to advertising experts— but the line-up included mostly no-name companies that one TV expert said were reminiscent of a backwater show broadcast at 3 a.m. rather than daytime television," said StopDrLaura.com .
Chicago's protest was coordinated with similar events in more than 30 cities across the U.S.
"Watching Laura Schlessinger's TV debut called to mind a wolf in sheep's clothing," said GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry. "Her demure demeanor today is an obvious attempt to depart from her abusive radio persona, but it is clearly a superficial change. After the mass exodus of national sponsors from her radio show, Paramount obviously has realized that allowing Laura to abuse and defame people on television is not in its best economic interests.
"GLAAD views Laura's 'new attitude' as the result of the lesbian and gay community's efforts to expose her defamatory rhetoric. Laura has demonstrated time and again that she refuses to take responsibility for what she says publicly —even when confronted with her statements directly as she was last Friday on NBC's Today."