Editor's note:  Happy Thanksgiving!  Be safe.

Students are writing us and posting on the boards that the Daily Bruin ads are being well received by the student population.  Here is one post, obviously biased:

I am currently a UCLA student and I can verify that the ad caused quite a stir on campus.  Coach Doofus is less popular on campus than many of you people realize. Believe it or not, some of us actually care about having a well-coached team.

Rich Perelman also did a little reporting on the ads for his LAT What's Bruin blog (emphasis his):  read more

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Editor's Note. Tracy Pearson writes for the Press Enterprise, not the Press Telegram as we posted. The post has been corrected to reflect that fact.

The Daily Bruin ads have started to make an impact.  For those of you who did not see the ads, a half pager was printed on Page 2 of the Sports section on Monday, and an 1/8 pager was printed in the paper yesterday.  We have 3 more ads getting published in the next 2 weeks.  The half pager was huge.  It was impossible to ignore.  We received many email comments about it and the 1/8 pager, and the discussion on the boards has been largely positive. 

Traffic to DD has definitely increased, although it's hard to say how much is due to the ads because the Dorrell race-flaming quote still has all Bruins upset.  All in all, so far, the ads are having their intended effect.  People are talking about them, and mostly positively.  We even received an email from former Bruin champion Brian Theriot, our FB's father, whom we have asked to write a post for our site (he wants to keep Dorrell by the way). The ads are having the impact of making Dorrell's failure REAL to many Bruins who hadn't formed an opinion.  More ads are being published in the coming weeks.

There are rumors everywhere now that Dan Guerrero has made his decision.  It is obviously hard to believe anything at this point. However, the last push to save Dorrell continues as Kevin Pearson in the Press Enterprise writes an entire article on how "Dorrell has cleaned up the program."  Dorrell obliges Pearson with some choice quotes that basically lay out his reasons for why Guerrero should not fire him:  read more

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The first half page Dump Dorrell ad will be printed in the Daily Bruin today. If you see it please report on it here, what page its on, what articles are near it, etc.  The campaign to get a new coach and turn our program into a winner begins today!!  Thank you again to all the Bruin fans who made this possible. Go Bruins!!

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Editor's Note:  We have 5 Daily Bruin ad placements.  The first ad is a half-pager on Monday. We will have ads after Oregon and after SuC. We dont want to say exactly when so that there are no Save Dorrell ads in competition. We will let you know the day before.

The Daily Bruin ads are now complete!  The only thing remaining is final approval from the editor and whomever makes the decisions on ad copy.  We got word that the draft copy was ok with them, but you never know.  There were 46 Bruin fans (make that 47 now), after some requested and received refunds, who stepped up and made this happen.  They not only talked the talk, they walked the walk.

On to the copy.  Below are 2 ad types, obviously not to scale. The first is the copy for the 1/2 page ad (the 1/4 pager looks the same only shorter and wider) and the second is the copy for the 1/8 pager.  We kept the large quote font for the 1/8 pager because it stands a better chance of getting noticed.  The DB initially wanted the same large quote font for the other 2 ad sizes but it detracted from the ad in our opinion.  Here they are, fire away with your thoughts:  read more

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Not a whole lot going on today in UCLA football given the bye week.  But we at DD are preparing for next week.  Some of our readers have given us great notes on next steps once the ads start publishing in the Daily Bruin on Monday. We have had a couple of additional contributors to the ad in the last many days.  That will go some ways towards the minor deficit we have since 5 contributors decided to get a refund, which we gave … no worries.  

Despite the bye week, there are some news bits to report:  read more

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We have placed our ad in the Daily Bruin. There will be 5 ads total scattered over the next couple of weeks.  We will have more details later … but the first ad is scheduled to be placed on Monday, a full 1/2 page ad in the sports section.  Here is the copy, after much tweaking and suggestions by many here and by email and on BruinsNation. read more

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… this is not over.  Brian Dohn apparently continues to think this is not over.  And Karl Dorrell … he met with all the '08 recruits on Monday and, according to Dohn, the meeting went well and the recruits remain committed:

This is a bit dated, but because of blog issues, I didn't get a chance to post it until now. Many of the committed players were on campus Monday to meet with coach Karl Dorrell and the coaching staff. From what I understand, Dorrell was tremendous during the meeting, and all the recruits remain on board. That said, the feelings of the recruits could change if there are any changes with the coaching staff.

We will work on something action oriented next week once the first ad is placed in the Daily Bruin.  We have people submitting many ideas on this, but it won't be anything you probably couldn't imagine yourself.  We will let you know how to help out then.  In the meantime, give us your thoughts and ideas on the updated draft ad copy. 

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Ok, great notes from everyone here, via email and on BruinsNation.  We have to get this in tomorrow morning for a Monday ad, the first of 5 (which we will spread out).  We have cut the copy to the following, fire away with your thoughts (do we need a more forceful "Fire Dorrell because X" line?):

"UCLA is officially the worst-coached (football) team in America."

Open letter to Dan Guerrero and Chancellor Gene Block

It is time to end the UCLA football program's commitment to mediocrity.  Over the last 2 decades, we, as UCLA football fans, have experienced very few seasons to be proud of.  

We should look no further than our own experience at UCLA to find solutions. Our successes at UCLA in the 2 major college sports, football and basketball, show us that hiring inexperience most often fails us (Barnes, Farmer, Hazzard, Lavin and Dorrell).  

The question Bruin fans ask is: What commitment do Murphy Hall and Morgan Center have to excellence in football?   If we continue in our current direction, declining interest and future declining revenues will not only hurt our football program but also all of our athletic programs.

We urge you to make the right choice for our football program and athletic department. Replace Karl Dorrell at the end of the season with a proven, winning, experienced head coach.

Paid for by UCLA students, alums, donors, boosters, fans, and DumpDorrell.com

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Below is the draft ad copy we are going to use for the Daily Bruin ad.  We are still waiting to hear from some contributors, but most contributors have agreed to have their donations used for the ad so we should have enough to meet the cost.  Some have declined and we have refunded their donations. A couple of people have made donations since last weekend to add to the total.  If you are one of the contributors that still has not responded please contact us.   Here is a draft of the copy that will go to the DB Tuesday (it may be too long), fire away with your thoughts:  read more

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Folks, the LAT is priced way out of our range, in the 10s of thousands.  They charge just under $1,000 per inch for "advocacy" ads. The billboard would be a thousand times more valuable than the LAT.  So, we are going to go with the Daily Bruin, once we hear back from all contributors.  We will most likely go with the Mandel quote followed by a short open letter.  More later …

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