It's that time of year again -- spring break -- and this means another busy season for Girls Gone Wild. On a recent evening, the camera crew was up to its usual tricks, egging on college students to flash their breasts on the street, on the beach and in hotel rooms with lines like "Do you want to get wild for me?" "Nice" and "Shake it!"
And, as usual, plenty of girls obliged. This time around, though, the crew approached men, too, asking them to drop their pants for a new video series, Guys Gone Wild, a product of uncertain market appeal that will be introduced as an experiment this summer.
"It's spring break. Why not?" said Michael, a 20-year-old from the State University of New York at Geneseo who wore jeans, a loose shirt and a slightly dazed grin. He mooned the camera in a hotel hallway but asked that his last name not be used, explaining that being naked on tape could come back to haunt him.
Still, he said, "It's pretty cool."
For Joe Francis, the 31-year-old creator of the Girls Gone Wild videos, the pervasiveness of that kind of what-the-heck attitude to self-exposure has been pure gold, providing him with two mansions, including one in Bel Air, California, a ski retreat and two jets. Though buyers of his US$9.99 (and sometimes more) videos and DVDs, well-advertised on late-night infomercials, are mostly young men, the sunburned, woozy party image the videos project has reached well beyond its core audience. Stars like Brad Pitt have been photographed wearing "Girls Gone Wild" trucker hats, television shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm have written the videos into their story lines and John Kerry has jokingly proposed the release of a "Kerry Gone Wild" video.
So this year, after seven years of building his soft-porn empire into what he boasts is a US$100-million-a-year business, and despite the fact that multiple lawsuits and a criminal case are pending against him, Francis has brand expansion on his mind. He is embarking on projects and licensing deals to slap the "Girls Gone Wild" name on restaurants, clothes, music and movies.
"Girls Gone Wild is an entertainment franchise," Francis said at the headquarters of his company, Mantra Entertainment in Santa Monica, California. "I want to put that name on everything I can."
MGM has purchased the rights to use the videos as the theme of what studio officials say will be either a teen comedy or a reality movie, and Jive Records is planning to release a compilation CD of dance music under the Girls Gone Wild brand.
More ambitious, however, is Francis' licensing deal for a chain of Girls Gone Wild restaurants with the business partners behind several Las Vegas bar franchises, including Coyote Ugly, which inspired a 2000 movie.
Jennifer Worthington, one of the partners in the Girls Gone Wild restaurant venture, said the group was investing up to US$30 million on four initial locations, with the first scheduled to open in Times Square by fall. (New Orleans, Las Vegas and Miami are next.) Francis is to receive a percentage of the revenues under an agreement signed two months ago, she said.
Likening the concept to Hooters, known for its busty waitresses in tight tops, and to the popular Senor Frog's chain, Worthington promised "the most fun spring break party that you could ever imagine," minus the nudity. Customers of the Girls Gone Wild Cantina and Dance Club will be treated to dance routines by waitresses and bartenders, and big screens for watching sports.
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