As you are likely aware if you've been hanging out on the site lately, there's a bit of a firestorm going on right now regarding the lack of intimacy, physical contact, and general authenticity present in the relationship of Luke and Noah, As the World Turns' history-making gay couple.

Fans have been complaining about the kiss-freeze on fansites and messageboards for months, but in February an enterprising viewer took matters into his own hands and got the mainstream media involved, with stories popping up on CNN and various television news magazines. We got in touch with the man who started the Nuke media blitz (he'll go by Anthony G. here) and asked him to share how he pushed the story into the spotlight, and just what it was that marked the tipping point from devoted fan to PR nightmare.

AfterElton.com: So what was the straw that broke the Nukie's back? Can you pinpoint at what moment an everyday soaps fan turned into a media blitzer?
Anthony G.: The last straw for me and many others came on Valentine’s Day. After mistletoe-gate at Christmas, most people got extremely upset at Procter & Gamble’s decision to start censoring Luke and Noah. We wrote letters of support of the storyline, its actors, and its producers. We also sent in Hershey Kisses as a not-too-subtle way to get our point across that we wanted things to change. I believe, as a group, fans decided that we should give them time to see how they would react to our letters of encouragement.

When every other couple on not only the show, but ON THE ENTIRE PLANET, kissed on Valentine’s Day, and Luke & Noah hugged, that was the instant that our anger at the show regarding this issue went off the charts. Some of us had hoped that our letters and other things - such as one soap magazine poll finding over 90% of the respondents wanted to see Luke & Noah be more physical – would help to change Procter & Gamble’s mind. When that episode aired, and no kiss was in sight, that’s the point at which we realized that we had to do something else as nothing had changed, and nor would it, unless we acted. I thought it best to do that now, while we were all still quite upset. It was important to me to channel that negative energy into something positive, and that’s what I had hoped to do – and in the end, it is what we did - with the media blitz.

AE: How did you go about your campaign? Did you pick up a how-to book on media blitzes?
AG: Is there one? I don’t know. If not, there should be! I actually just did it off the top of my head. After Valentine’s Day, fans of the show at www.vanhansis.net were really peeved, more so than they’ve ever been, at the show. This is saying something too as we tend to be die-hards on that forum, very devoted and protective of the story and the actors. After the episode aired, there was discussion regarding what we should do next, but no one was taking the bull the by the horns and *doing* it quite yet, so I took it upon myself to get something going.

You might think that the best way to draw our complaints regarding this issue to the powers that be might be via the soap press. I had that same thought for about a second, and then dismissed it entirely. The soap magazines had not done much at all to point out this discrimination. They would much rather put Mr. Van Hansis in the difficult position regarding asking about the kissing ban than ask, say, Mr. Pat Gentile, head of Procter & Gamble Television Productions, about it. They never asked any P&G rep about this issue at all until after our media blitz was over, and then and only then did one of the three soap magazines get quotes from a P&G rep. Granted, the story was a half of a page and appeared buried in the middle of the issue, but that’s honestly more coverage than I thought the story would get in the soap magazines. I thought they would completely ignore it, and I guess what they did end up doing is *almost*, but not quite, that!

Considering there weren’t many other options, and that AfterElton.com had already tackled this issue by talking to Brian T. Cahill of Procter & Gamble TV productions, I thought it would be best if we took this to the mainstream press.

A day or two after Valentine’s Day, I made a post on the www.vanhansis.net forum stating that I, with everyone’s help, was going to be conducting a “Support Luke & Noah” in the media week campaign. I requested that everyone who was going to participate reply to the thread – sort of as a way to motivate and keep people organized and on task. I asked everyone that was going to participate to write a general letter that they would be sending out to numerous members of the media regarding the Nuke storyline. I told everyone to write about whatever they wanted, as the negative and positive aspects of the tale have affected everyone differently, and it wasn’t my place to tell them what to write. Even though we are writing letters that will come off as us complaining about the show – which we were, I suggested that I thought it was important that we also pointed out all the positives that the show has done with the storyline, and up to mistletoe-gate, the show had done *amazing* things with the Luke & Noah characters.

I gave everyone about 3 or 4 days to write their letter. During that time, I went to many different newspaper websites and other news websites and scoured these sites for email addresses of television reporters/writers. When the blitz finally started, I posted about 10 to 15 different media contact names & their email address each day, and asked that everyone send out their email to those contacts every single day. I also asked these very dedicated campaigners let me know if they had any additional media contacts that I should add to the list. I’m glad I did that as many people came up with some very valuable media contacts that I had not, and that resulted in more stories being written in these media outlets because of those amazing people’s suggestions!

By the end of the campaign – which ended up being around 9 days instead of a week because my media list had grown so large – we had contacted almost 100 members of the media. Had someone told me how it would blow up like it did – being featured on CNN Showbiz Tonight, the Associated Press, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, TIME Magazine, The Boston Globe, The LA Times, and even being featured in Canadian and overseas coverage – I wouldn’t have believed them!

I think the key to this campaign’s success is two-fold. Number one, the people who wrote in to these media outlets are fantastic fans that I know to be very articulate and passionate. Many of these people poured out their hearts in their emails, and I think that’s one aspect to our campaign that really attracted reporters to this story. Many of the reporters even had commented back that they were convinced to write about this because of the detail and care each of us had put into our emails. Many have even commented to us that they want to write about this AGAIN if Procter & Gamble ever changes their tune (do you hear that P&G? More mainstream publicity is *right* around the corner if you do the *right* thing! I hope you heard me!).

Secondly, I think that our campaign was unique in that it’s sort of counter to what people would expect. To hear a story about people campaigning to get gay kissing off of their television sets, most people wouldn’t even notice or find that story interesting at all. I would like to believe that a campaign of hate such as this wouldn’t garner much attention. However, a media blitz where fans are campaigning FOR this to be shown, that takes a nice twist on things and shows just how far, in a way, many have come. Some at Procter & Gamble probably think fans aren’t ready at all to see this, hence the ban, but we were here to announce to everyone that it’s time to move into 2008 and just let the men actually BE boyfriends and show them kiss. The world really won’t end! Besides, as many others have said, both the haters and lovers were being ticked off with the ban, so what was the point of it all?

I think many reporters agreed with our assessment and wondered exactly what was behind this ban – especially after they had already shown 2 kisses months ago. I think that this backtracking is also what appealed to the media – why would a show that was trying to be gay-friendly now turn on its viewers like that? Thanks to these investigative journalists, as many had feared, we found out that Procter & Gamble did discuss this issue with the American “Family” Association, an anti-gay group, and might have issued the kissing ban as a result of cowering to these people. Why they even picked up the phone when this organization rang them up, when the show is doing a pro-gay storyline and not an anti-gay storyline, is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Sorry about going way off topic there! On to the next question…

AE: How long have you been watching ATWT? Would you consider yourself an authority on it? Do you think it's clear that the show is backpedaling?
AG: I have only been watching the show since the middle-half of last year. I discovered the show via Andy’s Nuke youtube clips (Andy is youtube’s resident #1 Nuke fan and supporter, for those who don’t know!). I watched a few and eventually found myself hooked. Over the next few days, I went back and watched all of the other Nuke clips Andy had posted. Shortly after that, I found the awesome site www.vanhansis.net and lurked there for awhile until finally signing up and joining all of the other wonderful nutters for Nukes on that site.

Considering I haven’t been a fan for long, I would say that the vast majority of the viewers watching know more about the show than I do! I think I know more about what Twinkees are made of then about the history of As the World Turns (pathetic, I know!). Still, that doesn’t make me any of a less of a fan –or does it?

Regarding backpedaling…the only people that, upon seeing all the Nuke clips from the last kiss up to the present and wouldn’t notice the kissing ban would have to be blind people!

The saddest thing about this backpedaling is that the show had done *so* much good before the ban was in place. The Luke and then Luke & Noah stories had been extremely well done up to that point. Both actors had, and still do, an amazing job in their respective roles! Considering the show airs on a *daily* basis in millions of homes, it was and still is important that this story was told right, and up until the end of last year, the show had got *most* things right, and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

Our campaign was done in order to try to get them to course correct. We wanted things back to the way they were well before Christmas. We knew the show could deliver good stories with Luke & Noah, without any censorship being a huge distraction (we’re talking 50 elephants in the room), and wanted to try to steer Procter & Gamble back in that direction.

AE: What do you think is behind the kiss cool-off?
AG: Procter & Gamble’s irrational fear that their viewers can’t handle seeing a kiss between two guys on their television sets. That’s why they are self-censoring themselves. They honestly aren’t giving their viewers enough credit, and as a result, *everyone* is suffering.

Trying to please their “diverse audience” by showing Luke & Noah rub shoulders, hug, and mouth stare, and yet panning away every time they go in for a kiss isn’t pleasing the people who want to see them show more affection, and nor is it pleasing the people who don’t want to even see these characters on their tv sets – let alone seeing them show any affection! In making this half-hearted effort to appease all of their viewers, they are pleasing no one, and hopefully they have learned this simple lesson by now – a lesson that they should have known before they even got themselves into this situation.

AE: What are your thoughts on ATWT getting the GLAAD Media Award?
AG: I honestly wasn’t following the competition, so I shouldn’t be the one to speak regarding whether they beat out the competition for this reward. I still will comment as to whether they should have been even in the running.

I, like some fans, am conflicted regarding this award being given to them. As I stated earlier, the show has done a lot of terrific work with the Nuke storyline last year, but then, at around year’s end, they started to lose their way because of the censorship. I guess personally I am happy that they won the award, but I also hope that it serves as a reminder to them *why* they won this award in the first place – because as of now, if it was an award for 2008, I honestly don’t think they would have my vote. They are really starting to do some harm, and losing some long-time supporters of the storyline, by continuing with this discrimination. Hopefully, in winning this award for the *great* work they’ve done in the past, they will realize that they aren’t at that state anymore and do their best to get back to that state as soon as possible.

AE: Would you consider yourself a "complainer"? Have you ever written a "strongly worded letter" to an airline, or something similar?
AG: Not really. We all complain from time to time regarding the little things in life (ie, people being late, people who cut you off in traffic, etc.), but in general, I don’t think I’m a major league complainer.

I have filed a couple of better business bureau complaints, but I only filed those as I didn’t get satisfaction when dealing directly with the businesses. Other than that, though, I’ve never really complained much in this manner.

AE: How has the response been to the attention that you've directed to the show? Any backlash, either from fans or CBS?
AG: The attention that the show has drawn from this media blitz has been nothing short of amazing! I still can’t believe that it has been covered this much – with even more coverage on the way as I believe the Advocate is doing a feature story on this in an upcoming issue!

The vast majority of Luke & Noah fans whose comments I have read online were very supportive of our campaign. Some, however, feared it might backfire. Submitting to full disclosure, however, I must admit that I initially had the same fear. However, that thought lasted only a few minutes. Even though our media blitz might have appeared to be completely negative to some, it was definitely not. We were campaigning FOR a show and a storyline that we all had invested so much in on so many different levels. We had fallen in love with the story, the actors, and the characters, and became very protective of them. If this all wasn’t true up to the point where we had our campaign, if no one cared at all about any of those things, then we would have never bothered to have any campaign! Our media blitz was really done out of adoration for the story, and not against it, and I believe that came across in most of the media coverage of the story.

If the storyline was to end and the actors were to be let go after our campaign, it would have not been our fault as we were rallying for the show to continue - but to continue by getting back to its roots, before the censorship became an integral part of the story. That’s what we wanted conveyed via the press – our wish that the show continue the great story telling that they’ve done with both characters, but that they drop the censorship, because, as I and many before me had stated earlier, not only was it not pleasing anyway, but it was and has become a huge distraction in the way that it has interfered with peoples love for the story.

Regarding CBS - the one nice thing that came out during our campaign via Barbara Bloom’s comments is that CBS is fully behind the storyline. Ms. Bloom made it clear in her comments that the network is in no way censoring and hindering the Luke & Noah characters, and she even went as far as to say that she didn’t mind at all if their physical relationship was portrayed more realistically. CBS and Ms. Bloom deserve a lot of kudos for those comments, especially as they are contradictory to what Procter & Gamble has said and done so far.

I would really hope that Procter & Gamble wouldn’t be upset at us. As I stated earlier, we really were campaigning in favor of the storyline, and not against it. Even if it might have come off the opposite way to some, I would hope that the show would have been happy with all the free publicity they received. I don’t see soap operas being covered by TMZ, CNN, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, and other news outlets everyday, so I would sincerely hope that they really enjoyed all of this publicity that lasted about two+ weeks – with the LA Times story being the start of the campaign way back on February 22, and with even more stories yet to come – especially if things change. All the show has to do is let us know this change is going to happen, and we fans will do our jobs to let the media know that the show has corrected their missteps (but don’t worry, we won’t phrase it like that!), and the show can relive a lot of this free publicity yet again!

AE: If you could do it again, would you do anything differently?
AG: Overall, there really isn’t much at all that I would personally do differently.The only thing that I regret is going into hiding when, on day two of the campaign, the press started asking who had put this blitz together. I was fearful I would be a blithering idiot when it came to doing interviews with the press and hence would do a horrible job of representing all the fans who had poured their heart and souls into their emails to these media outlets. Instead of speaking out myself, I asked Roger Newcomb, the webmaster of www.vanhansis.net, to be the spokesperson for the campaign. I am very glad that I asked him as he is very smart, articulate, and can, better than just about any other Nuke fan that I know, make our point in a professional, clear, and sincere manner. He did an amazing job (as did the others who also spoke to the media!), and I thank him and everyone else who helped out. I only wish that I had contributed too back when the story broke, but alas there’s no going back in time and changing that. That’s why I greatly appreciated the offer from AfterElton.com & seized at the chance to do an interview here. I thought it was way beyond the time for me to at least partially make up for my mistake, and that’s why I accepted the generous offer to be able to speak my mind here.

AE: Best-case scenario, what do you want for Luke, Noah, and the fans?
AG: If I had my druthers, in a world where every wish that I had was granted, I would hope for many things for Nuke and for fans of the Nuke storyline.

First off, I believe that the show should demonstrate a firm commitment to the Nuke storyline by offering Mr. Jake Silbermann a contract. Mr. Hansis has just re-upped his contract with the show – deservedly so, and I believe it’s way beyond time that Mr. Silbermann was put on contract as well. Enough can never be said regarding the commitment and dedication that both actors bring to their respective roles. In regards to Mr. Silbermann, watching him blossom as an actor from his first somewhat shaky days on the show to the point where he is at now, where I believe him to be just as great of an actor as Mr. Hansis (and that’s saying something!), has been quite a remarkable thing to witness! I think that putting him on contract for all that he has done is not only what he deserves, but would also go a long ways in demonstrating to the fans a firm commitment to this storyline. It would be a sign that both actors are here for the long haul and that the show is committed to telling their story, wherever it may lead!

I think not only showing a commitment to the actors is in dire need, but actually a commitment to the story is required. Luke & Noah have never had a true-front burner storyline, and even the one they’re in now can definitely NOT be considered one.

In an interview on this very website in mid-February, Mr. Brian T. Cahill, VP of Proctor & Gamble Television Productions, stated the following, ““As soap opera fans know,” Cahill wrote, “daytime is a cyclical medium, where storylines vary in screen time. As with all the characters on the show, Luke and Noah are sometimes featured more heavily than other times. For instance, in July, August and September, they were on-air quite a bit. Fans will be seeing more of Luke and Noah in the coming weeks and months, as their story gets more air time.”

When Mr. Cahill stated that they will be seeing more of the characters in the “coming weeks and months,” I have to wonder if he is watching the same show as I am as they are definitely not being featured as much as Mr. Cahill had stated they would be. Considering fans have waited for a front-burner storyline since Luke & Noah first met, and we haven’t really had one, this is extremely disappointing to see. We actually thought they were getting a really big story after reading Mr. Cahill’s interview, but instead the show rushed Noah into a sham marriage and now appears to be featuring the couple once a week, if even that. This is not how a show should be treating one of their most popular couples – the couple that just got them tons of mainstream press worldwide! The show *really* needs to feature these characters a lot more. I have no idea why they haven’t done so up to this point. All that I know is that it is extremely frustrating and disappointing to us fans.

Of course, it almost goes without saying, all fans also would want for the kissing ban and discrimination that goes along with that ban to be dropped immediately from the storyline. All that we as fans want is that if the scene calls for a kiss, a kiss is shown. The camera should not pan away at this moment as if the kiss is something to be ashamed of. That’s really all that we are asking for. It’s not much at all, and hopefully Procter & Gamble has realized this and will start doing their best to try to make us - their very passionate and dedicated fans - happy by stopping the censorship. If all of the above happened, I personally, and I believe most other fans, would be thrilled! Will any of it happen? That is the question, isn’t it? I suppose only time will tell, and according to the clock on the homepage of this site, the clock is unfortunately still ticking away with no end in sight – yet!