http://www.showbizdata.com/contacts/picknews.cfm?id=30274

The producers and on-air weatherman of ABC's Good Morning America were victims of a hoax Wednesday, staged by a marketing company hired to promote the new ABC series Push, Nevada. Weatherman Tony Perkins, interviewing members of the crowd outside the GMA studio, accepted a jersey from members of the "Push, Nevada high school hockey team," then shouted "I love Push, Nevada!" amid cheers from the "team." The problem was that the "team" was composed of actors hired by Los Angeles-based ADD Marketing to promote the new ABC series about a fictitious Nevada town. In today's (Friday) Washington Post, TV writer Lisa de Moraes, commenting on the stunt (which was first reported in Daily Variety), remarked: "This is not good news for ABC if even people who work there are not aware that the network has a new show called Push, Nevada."

Aloof...bizarre...sarcastic...volatile...he is a CAT after all!

• RE: Good to see ABC is on top of things,Bucky Katt, 02:25 PM, 09-06-02
  • RE: Good to see ABC is on top of things,SurvivorBlows, 11:21 PM, 09-06-02
• ADD??,lizard, 01:13 PM, 09-07-02

And here is the Washington Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43793-2002Sep6.html

When ABC's "Good Morning America" cut to weatherman Tony Perkins Wednesday at about 8:30 a.m. for one of his talk-to-the-real-people bits, standing behind him were members of the Push, Nev., high school hockey team.

"I love Push, Nevada!" Perkins told America on-camera -- loud cheers from the teammates -- "because the guys from the Push, Nevada, high school hockey team have given me this jersey!" -- holds up jersey. "Last year they went 12-and-1," Perkins continued. "They're about to start their new season this year. Lost the championship game last year, but said they're going to win this year" -- more teammate cheers.

Then Perkins moved on to the weather.

The thing is, there is no Push, Nev., high school.

There isn't even a Push, Nev., according to the office of Nevada Gov. Kenny C. Guinn, though there is a Purgatory Hole, and a Pussy Willow, Wash. There's also a Pioche, Nev. The nice lady who answers the phone at the library on Main Street in Pioche tells The Post's Margaret Smith that it is not pronounced "Push," and adds, "people call this town a lot of things, but 'Push' isn't one of them."

"Push, Nevada" is, however, the name of an ABC drama series that debuts this fall.

The "hockey players" who appeared with Perkins were actors hired by a marketing company that ABC Entertainment had contracted to promote its new prime-time mystery drama from Ben Affleck -- yes, that Ben Affleck.

ABC says that neither the entertainment division nor the news division had any knowledge that L.A.-based ADD Marketing -- as in attention deficit disorder -- planned to pull this stunt on the news show.

And, apparently, no one involved with "Good Morning America" was aware that ABC Entertainment has a prime-time show debuting this fall called "Push, Nevada," set in a fictitious town, because they had not edited what turned out to be Perkins's lengthy plug for the series by the time "GMA" aired on the West Coast.

This is not good news for ABC if even people who work there are not aware that the network has a new show called "Push, Nevada."

I bet that everyone at WB network knows that WB has a show this fall that's set in the fictitious town of Everwood, Colo. (though the name sounds suspiciously like the real Evergreen, Colo.). No wonder ABC has had to hire a guerrilla marketing firm like ADD -- which specializes in "viral" marketing campaigns -- to try to promote awareness of its new drama series.

ADD is kind of like the guys on the TV series "Mission: Impossible" -- they take the tough jobs and you don't ask too many questions about how they get it done.

ADD is all about "being cool, indie and staying under the radar," the company's CEO, Scott Leonard, told Newsweek last year. But yesterday Leonard would tell The TV Column nothing. He referred our call to ABC Entertainment. Which is exactly what ABC News did.

ABC Entertainment said, "We feel we have a very different show in 'Push, Nevada' and we've decide to market it in a different fashion. To that end we hired an outside company that specialized in grass-roots campaigns, and one aspect of the campaign they formulated was this hockey team in New York. However, the people implementing the campaign did not take into account the types of questions that could arise when you enact this with a different division of the same company."

Trade paper Variety, which first reported the "GMA" plug for "Push, Nevada," says it also was victimized by ADD. Variety says it received an official-looking press release this week from the Push, Nev., Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, claiming that local merchants' business was booming since the producers of the ABC series started filming there.

And Variety reports that hitchhikers have been spotted around L.A. carrying signs reading "Push, Nevada, or Bust."

Aloof...bizarre...sarcastic...volatile...he is a CAT after all!

Wow, this is pretty funny, thanks for posting it

below is the original Variety story:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=854&ncid=772&e=18&u=/variety/20020905/tv_variety/television_abc_dc

The agency is called ADD??

I can't think of anything remotely humorous enough to say.