Posted on 07/14/2005 4:10:52 AM PDT by Cowman
Woman Sues Over Radio Station's Toy Hummer April Fools' Prank
Last Updated: 07-13-05 at 2:58PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A listener is suing a radio station she said promised her a new Hummer H2 and instead gave her a remote-controlled model as an April Fools' Day prank.
Shannon Castillo, 25, sued Taft radio station KBDS "The Play" 103.9 after it presented her the toy car for winning a weeklong "contest" in which listeners were supposed to track the number of miles two H2s traveled around town. DJs at the station gave regular updates on the vehicles' supposed travels.
She said she hired a baby sitter for her two children so she could arrive at the station at 6 a.m. on the day of the giveaway, April 1. After she waited for two hours, she said, a DJ pulled up in the back of a truck and handed her and another listener remote-controlled toy cars.
"They put us on the radio all week long, just portraying how they couldn't believe that we believed they were actually giving away real cars," said Castillo, a Bakersfield housewife. "I just couldn't believe that they would actually humiliate someone like that."
The station did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
A series of photos on the station's Web site shows Castillo being presented the toy. In the last photo in the series, she signals her displeasure with an obscene gesture.
"On April 1st (Fool's) we ran a contest...'Win A Hummer'. Do you know how many people actually participated thinkin' we were gonna give away an actual hummer? Not on this day!!!" the Web site says.
Castillo's lawyer, Scott Perlman, said the station's misrepresentation of the prizes being offered violated state law and Federal Communications Commission regulations. The lawsuit, filed June 21, seeks $60,000, about the cost of a real H2.
"Any time you conduct a contest you have to be brutally honest about how you're conducting the contest and what you're giving away," Perlman said.
He said the station indicated the H2 had 22-inch rims, suggesting the vehicle itself was full-sized.
The case recalls one from 2002 in which a Florida Hooters restaurant waitress sued over a contest in which she thought she won a Toyota for selling the most beer to customers but was presented a toy Yoda doll, one of the "Star Wars" characters. The restaurant said the contest was an April Fools' joke. The waitress received an undisclosed settlement.
Perlman said he believed the restaurant in that case had actually been more honest than the radio station.
"A play on words like that you can get away with," he said.
Yeah, I get the feeling that there's a bunch of people out there that at some time had their beebers stunned and now take themselves too seriesly. (The legal department requires this post to carry a disclaimer No offense was meant by this post. Any similarities to any idiot, living or dead, was purely unintentional. No animals were hurt, insulted, or looked at during posting. No one sang Polly Wally Doodle or any other copyrighted material during this post. Happy fun ball was not taunted during this post. No one said "Yo Mama" during this post. There was absolutely no fun to be had during this post. Any views expressed by this post are not necessarily those of the staff, management, sponsors, cleaning crew, or anyone even remotely associated with this post. Have a nice day)
So I guess April 1 should be a national holiday since we should all know better than to trust anyone on that day. Throw away the paper, turn off the TV, don't surf the net, because we should all know better than to believe that any honest information would be relayed on April 1.
It was a great April Fools gag. I have a feeling this lady will get the last laugh.
What does your post have to do with the law?
OTOH, I hate morning DJ's
My wife loves that movie! i was kinda like: "Whaaa....????"
This case could be worse. It could have been another type of hummer entirely which they were giving away...
OK, here's the best practical joke that was ever played on me. Funny? You be the judge.
I was installing a countertop in my basement. Nothing is quite square down there, so things had to be torqued down pretty hard. I was behind a wall, putting the final turn on the last bolt, when I heard a sickening, splintering crack from the countertop.
I went tearing around the corner. There was my brother, looking concerned. I checked the counter thoroughly, swearing like a sailor, but could find nothing wrong. Then I turned around and there was my brother, smirking, each hand holding half of the piece of scrap wood that he broke at a very precise moment.
It was years ago, but I still laugh really hard when I think of it.
And the 22-inch rims? Oh, my...
Here are pictures on the station's website, mentioned in the article. I can't post them here because the site won't let me: http://www.play1039.net/hummer.html#
LOL!
Good for her. I hate idiot disc jockeys.
OK... we have offically hit bottom and have begun to dig...
LOL, btw - I hate to admit it, but it's true.
Surely, you mean "Hugh can't be Sirius."
Let's face it, this thread is getting that silly that we might as well throw that it, too.
TS
Agreed. At least the "100 Grand" scam had some humor to it, and the "Toy Yoda" giveaway was, IMO, inspired.
TS
I remember a few years ago when Mars candy bars had a promotion that if you collected 1,000,000 Mars wrappers they would send you on a trip to Mars. Much to their astonishment, a couple from Indiana managed to collect the wrappers and demanded their prize. So the candy company sent them to Mars, Germany and gave them a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Mars, Pennsylvania would have been alot cheaper for them.
If they tried that kind of wordplay for this particular build up they would have gotten into even more trouble.
I see your point but the prize specified was a Hummmer not a TOY Hummer.
The Hummer is a motor vehicle- it is (technically) incorrect to refer to a model of a H2 as 'a Hummmer'-
Practical jokes are not covered by law -- prizes and contests over the air waves however, are. The woman has a case.
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