It's working! Already, eleven corporations including General Motors, Pepsico, and State Farm Insurance have given Heartland the boot in response to its outrageous and offensive billboard campaign equating belief in climate change with being a serial killer or terrorist.
But Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant who makes many of our household items, like Chapstick, Advil and Viagra, is holding out. While one of its major competitors, Eli Lilly, has severed ties with Heartland, Pfizer maintains that it gets “significant benefits from [its] involvement” with Heartland.
Will you take a minute to write on Pfizer's Facebook wall, demanding it stop funding the Heartland Institute?Here's How to write on Pfizer's wall:
- Click Here
- "Like" their page (the button's in the top right)
- Write a comment using some of the talking points below (Note: You'll only be able to comment on Pfizer’s post, not directly on their wall):
- Pfizer claims it is committed to fighting climate change, and calls itself a “science-based health care company”. How can a company committed to these goals have given $130,000 to the Heartland Institute in the last 2 years?
- Climate change is a fundamental global health threat, and it is a key facet of health care policy. The Heartland Institute’s radical attacks on climate science include denial of the impacts on climate pollution on health care policy. In fact, some of their fellows believe that climate change will have a positive impact on human health.
- According to the Heartland Institute, corporations like Pfizer who trust climate science are equivalent to serial killers and mass murderers. Will Pfizer honor its stated commitment to fighting climate change, and withdraw from the Heartland Institute immediately?
- Heartland has refused to apologize for the billboards and to back away from its divisive, extremist rhetoric.
Public outcry forced Heartland to tear down its offensive billboards less than a day after they went up. Instead of apologizing, Heartland declared victory for getting so much attention. Now, because of us, their 'victory' is coming with a price -- Heartland's corporate sponsors are dropping like flies.
We know that Pfizer cares what we think: It has literally begun deleting Facebook posts by customers and the public asking it to drop Heartland. By keeping up the pressure, we're showing Pfizer that they can't just 'delete' a problem away, they have to face it head on.
Thanks for all you do,
--Taren, Claiborne, Emma and the rest of us
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Additional Reading:
Pfizer: We Get ‘Significant Benefits From Our Involvement’ With The Heartland Institute, ThinkProgress, May 15, 2012
