Joe Francis has found his niche in porn, and Claire Hoffman of the LA Times has a fascinating, albeit disturbing, expose on Francis and his company. The story begins with Francis assaulting Hoffman and screaming, "You don't care about the 1st Amendment. I care about the 1st Amendment, but you are the kind of reporter who doesn't care."

Hoffman also describes the tactics Francis uses to recruit the women in his videos:

Tonight we had spent almost five hours in a sweaty nightclub, crowded with 2,500 very young and very drunk people. Clubs like this are fertile fields for Francis. He's made a fortune selling videos of women who agree to flash their breasts and French-kiss their friends for the cameras. In exchange, a girl who goes wild will receive a T-shirt, a pair of panties, maybe a trucker hat. It had been a typical night for him. He'd scoured the club, recruiting young and, for the most part, intoxicated women.

As you would expect, this strategy comes with some built-in legal hazards:

It seems like Francis spends a lot of money on lawyers. I guess that comes with the territory of filming strangers who take off their clothes. More than a dozen women have sued him, alleging that his company used images of them exposing their bodies on "Girls Gone Wild" videos, box covers and infomercials without their permission. Only a few have convinced the courts that they were unwitting victims. For the most part, judges and juries have sided with Francis' 1st Amendment argument that the plaintiffs' images were captured in public places and that the company was free to use them as it pleased, particularly in light of the fact that the women had signed waivers.

The story is long and describes the day's activities in great detail, including an incident in which one of Francis' recruits claims that Francis forced himself on her. The woman stated, "I told him it hurt, and he kept doing it. And I keep telling him it hurts. I said, 'No' twice in the beginning, and during I started saying, 'Oh, my god, it hurts.' I kept telling him it hurt, but he kept going, and he said he was sorry but kissed me so I wouldn't keep talking."

Much of my life is spent studying entrepreneurs, and I admire many of them. I find nothing admirable about Joe Francis.

Businesses of Note, Entrepreneurs | Bookmark

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e200d834a5f41a53ef

Links to weblogs that reference "Girls Gone Wild" Founder Exposed: