USA Next sued for $25 million over anti-gay anti-AARP ad
Couple Used in Homophobic Anti-AARP Ad Files Federal Lawsuit
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/03/usa-next-sued-for-25-million-over-anti..html
A $25 million lawsuit was filed today against right-wing front group
USA Next and political consulting firm Mark Montini International for
stealing an Oregon couple's wedding photo and using it without
permission in a high-profile gay-bashing ad designed to drum up support
for social security privatization.
Following an admission of photo theft by the creator, advertiser and
publisher of the ad, the couple whose image was stolen - Rick Raymen
and Steve Hansen of Portland, Oregon - today filed a four-count lawsuit
in federal court in Washington, DC. The suit alleges that the use of
the couple's image without permission constituted an invasion of
privacy, was libelous, violated their right of publicity and
constituted an intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In one version of the USA Next ad disseminated widely on the Internet
in February, and aired repeatedly by television news programs and
newspapers nationwide, the couple's image, superimposed with a green
checkmark, is side-by-side a picture of a US soldier with a red "X"
across it. Below the photos is the phrase "The REAL AARP Agenda."
"Our privacy and personal integrity were violated when our wedding
photo was stolen and used to portray us as treasonous, unpatriotic, and
a threat to American troops," Rick Raymen said. "We have been
harassed and humiliated by this hateful ad campaign and by the bigotry
and anger it has generated against us nationwide."
"Our lawsuit is intended to make USA Next and Mark Montini pay for the
harm they have caused and to send a message to them that they cannot
recklessly play with peoples' reputations and make them targets of
hate, as they have done with us," Raymen said. "When we get our
judgment, we intend to donate to those who fight the kind of hate and
homophobia that USA Next and Montini have demonstrated."
Christopher Wolf, counsel for the Oregon couple, and a partner in the
Proskauer Rose law firm, explained the basis of today's lawsuit in
the complaint filed with the court. "When they created and published
the advertisement, defendants knew or should have known that the
publication of the plaintiffs' image would subject them to an
invasion of privacy and ridicule," Wolf wrote in the complaint. "As
a result of the publication of the advertisement, plaintiffs have
suffered embarrassment, extreme emotional distress, and invasion of
privacy. In addition, as a result of the libelous statement
communicated by the advertisement about plaintiffs, their reputations
as patriotic American citizens has been severely damaged."
"Our lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants accountable for taking two
private citizens and maliciously making them targets for homophobic
bigots," Wolf said today. "Our clients did not volunteer to be
models in a right-wing hate campaign. There are serious legal
consequences for deploying them against their will."
Simultaneously with the filing of the complaint, Wolf filed a motion
for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against
USA Next and its ad agency to get them to stop using the photo. The
motion also seeks the return of all pictures containing the couple's
image and an accounting of all places where the photos have been used
or sent, in light of the refusal of USA Next to retract or apologize
for its ad.
The dispute leading to the lawsuit began a few weeks ago when Raymen
and Hansen noticed their wedding photo published on the conservative
America Spectator Web site as part of a homophobic USA Next ad meant to
slur AARP. Not having given their permission for use of the photo,
Raymen and Hansen contacted the copyright holder, the Portland Tribune,
and the paper quickly confirmed that it had not sold the photo to
anyone and that the image had likely been stolen from its Web site.
In the meantime, the intentionally controversial ad quickly achieved
USA Next's goal of being viral marketed for free to millions of
viewers on the Internet, on network television, and in major news
publications across the country.
On behalf of Raymen and Hansen, attorney Christopher Wolf wrote USA
Next chairman and CEO Charles Jarvis on February 28, 2005, demanding
that USA Next immediately stop using photos of the couple and that it
publicly apologize for the ongoing harm it is causing.
While refusing to respond to the letter, USA Next repeatedly told the
media that it had lawfully purchased the photo and that Raymen and
Hansen were being "silly." In fact, USA Next and its surrogates
were surreptitiously trying to buy the photo at the same time they were
assuring the media that it had already been purchased.
Raymen and Hansen have yet to receive an apology from USA Next.
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