Show corporate bullies like Clear Channel that if they try to shut us up it will just make us stronger. Donate now so our ads can blanket Chicago during Heartland’s conference next week.
“You can’t criticize corporations.”
That’s what media company Clear Channel -- the same company who happily ran the Heartland Institute’s ad a few weeks ago that equates belief in climate change to terrorism -- told us.
We were trying to run a response billboard, along with our partners at Forecast the Facts and 350, calling out corporate supporters of the Heartland Institute like Pfizer, Comcast, and Microsoft. But, not surprisingly, the corporate world protects its own.
So we came up with an awesome alternate plan -- one that no big corporation can stop: Heartland is holding a big conference in Chicago this week. Imagine that as the climate change denialists ride up to the conference center in their taxis, they’re surrounded by bicycle billboards -- like the one to the right -- denouncing Heartland’s corporate funders.
But we need your help to pull it off. The cyclists cost $5,000 to hire for the 3 days of the conference. It’s a bargain: Chipping in just $25 will buy you 15 min of a literally people-powered bicycle confronting corporate-funded climate deniers. And it’ll show corporate bullies like Clear Channel that if they try to shut us up it will just make us stronger.
Many top environmental journalists are attending the Heartland climate-denial conference -- in large part because your efforts to end Heartland’s corporate support has become a big story.
And our pressure is working! Eleven corporations have already dropped their support for Heartland in the last few weeks, and nearly half of Heartland’s expected 2012 corporate funding has been eliminated. But Pfizer, Microsoft, and others remain -- even though they profess to believe in climate change. We have to keep up the pressure and show corporations that supporting this extremism is unacceptable to their customers.
If you need one more reason to chip in, imagine this: the look on the faces of the Heartland conference attendees when they find themselves encircled by bikes mocking their corporate backers!
Please help make that possible by chipping in whatever you can -- even just $5 or $10.
- Taren, Kaytee and the rest of us
**********
More Information
The BillBoard Wars: Chapter 2 (or is it 3?), New York Times, 17 May 2012
Remaining Heartland Institute corporate sponsors
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.