Avirginsplea.com

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avirginsplea.com is a website that was part of a viral marketing experiment. It first claimed that a 25-year old virgin living in Toronto named Geoff needed five million hits on his website in 30 days in order for Jenn, one of his very hot platonic female friends, to help him lose his virginity.

The story of this website gained widespread media attention, and was featured on many radio shows and in several newspapers including the Toronto Sun and the New York Post. As of May 18, 2006, the website has gotten over 3,000,000 pageviews since it went up on May 1. ^[1]

On May 17, 2006, it was revealed that this story was a hoax. Etobicoke web developer Matthew Gamble, 24, confessed that it was "a viral marketing experiment that got far too out of hand." ^[2] It was invented to "tug at the heart strings" of web surfers. Geoff Skerlan is indeed a real person, but the story, website, and media interviews were all performed by Mr. Gamble. ^[3] "Jenn," whose real name is Rachel, knew what the photo was for, but that she didn't expect the avalanche of publicity, and is pleased it is all over. She took the hoax in stride and was Toronto Sun's Sunshine Girl for May 18.