The Girls Gone Wild franchise, created by Joseph R. Francis, is a series by the production company Mantra Films, Inc. Girls Gone Wild videos usually involve a camera crew patrolling a party-heavy area frequented by young adults in search of attractive young women who agree to expose their bodies for the camera, usually in exchange for a Girls Gone Wild t-shirt and sometimes short pants. This involves exposure of the breasts and/or buttocks and vulva, sometimes further removal of clothing, and sometimes the camera crew following a group of young females back to a hotel or other location and taping them engaging in additional sexual activities/intercourse.

Background

The videos have themes such as Girls Gone Wild: Ultimate Spring Break or Girls Gone Wild: Sexy Sorority Sweethearts. They are mainly sold via television mail order and are frequently advertised on late-night television infomercials.

In some states in the U.S., exposing oneself in a public area is a criminal offense defined by state law as indecent exposure, public lewdness, or sexual misconduct, etc. One notable exception is New York, where the Court of Appeals held in 1992 that the state constitution's equal protection provision allows women to go topless in any public area where men also have that right. However, whereas toplessness in itself may not be grounds for arrest, many of the women featured in Girls Gone Wild commit other acts in public that may be considered lewd and therefore culpable to criminal prosecution.

Women who expose themselves in this manner have no expectation of privacy; moreover, GGW staff members claim they get a release from every flasher. The legal effect of these factors has resulted in a waiver of some women and girls' rights to bring a lawsuit against GGW.

Legal action

The franchise has become so successful in recent years that several knockoff videos emerged bearing the "Girls Gone Wild" name. These videos lack any other apparent connection to the franchise; for instance, they lack the typical stylized intro and on-camera narration from the show's producers, and contain no end credits of any kind—thus, they also do not contain the Mantra Entertainment logo. These particular videos have crews that will patrol the festivals in locations such as Mardi Gras or Las Vegas claiming to be affiliated with Girls Gone Wild, even distributing convincing Girls Gone Wild t-shirts. Videos compiled from the use of this technique have been released, at least via the Internet. Also Wild Party Girls and several other knockoffs have used the Girls Gone Wild formula with only minor aesthetic changes.Fact: date=February 2007

On December 16, 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Mantra Films, Inc., and its sole officer and director Joseph R. Francis, seeking civil penalties for violations of previous Commission determinations concerning unfair and deceptive acts or practices and consumer redress. Violations of previous Commission determinations that an act or practice is unfair or deceptive and unlawful carry a civil penalty of up to $11,000 per violation. The Commission's complaint alleges that since December 2000, Mantra and Francis deceptively marketed Girls Gone Wild videos and DVDs to consumers, automatically shipped these unordered videos and DVDs to consumers, and charged consumers for them without consumers' consent.