[RonDog]

More eGray media coverage, from:

Egad, It's eGray! [Bill Simon's eBay parody website of "Pay for Play" CA Governor Gray Davis]
www.TechCentralStation.com ^ | September 12, 2002 | By Sonia Arrison
Posted on 09/12/2002 4:26 PM Pacific by RonDog

Egad, It's eGray!

By Sonia Arrison

09/12/2002

TCS

Last week, California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon stirred things up when his campaign posted a satire of Governor Gray Davis auctioning public policies at web site eGray.org. While not as outrageous as the vote swapping sites from the 2000 election, it's a reminder that the Internet still affects political discourse.

One way the Net changes things is that word of mouth can travel much faster. "The first week, without publicity, we got 20,000 unique visitors to eGray," said Chris Tyrrell, Simon's Director of Technology. "E-mail is like the high-tech version of the water cooler." And a lot of people were laughing into their glasses at eGray auction items like the "get out of jail free" card.

The number of visitors skyrocketed when USA Today mentioned eGray.org and then when an eBay spokesperson said the company might file a legal complaint because of the similarity of the parody to the real eBay site. The day of the eBay comments, eGray.org received an estimated 30,000 unique visits. Not a bad way to get a political message across...

more

[RonDog]

(for release on TUESDAY, September 17, 2002)

"eGray Hooker" at the Beverly Hilton

.......... The Beverly Hilton hotel will be the scene today for the first gubernatorial debate (at 2 pm) between the Republican Party challenger Bill Simon and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo.

.......... Since California governor Gray Davis has announced that he will NOT participate in any debate which also includes the feisty Latino activist, members of the conservative news forum www.FreeRepublic.com will be conducting "street theater" outside the hotel to protest Gray Davis by bringing the governor’s "evil twin" – a character they call the "eGray Hooker."

.......... Dressed in a Halloween costume of the transvestite star of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Frank N. Furter, and wearing a mask of the cartoon character "Beavis" (of "Beavis and Butthead"), this "eGray Hooker" will carry a sign, "Will Work for… BRIBE$!"

.......... Controversy surrounding Davis’s alleged "Pay for Play" policy of allowing campaign contributions to directly influence his major decisions has intensified with the recent launch of a parody of the well-known auction site eBay.com, called www.eGray.org.

.......... Despite complaints from eBay, the Simon camp refuses to take down their wildly popular spoof, citing the court decision which allowed former presidential candidate Ralph Nader to promote a similar parody using MasterCard’s "Priceless" ads.

.......... Information about today’s debate can be found at the website of the California Green Party, www.cagreens.org