Adbusters:
In the classic novel, Treasure Island, any pirate suspected of betrayal is handed a piece of paper with a black spot on it — a warning that the receiver has been marked for judgement. So dreaded is this mark that when the grizzled pirate Billy Bones has one slipped into his hand, he suffers a fear-induced stroke and dies.
Since the late 1980s, the oil gian ExxonMobil has pumped tens of millions of dollars into dozens of front groups whose sole job was to confuse people about the link between fossil fuels and global warming. This strategy of “manufacturing uncertainty” has served ExxonMobile well, with the company riding its wave of confusion to record profits — $39 billion in 2006 alone, making it the world’s most profitable public corporation.
Now, faced with solid science that it can no longer even pretend to refute, ExxonMobile is using a multi-million dollar ad campaign to wriggle out of responsibility for its role in endangering the planet with expanding deserts, vanishing fresh water supplies, rising sea levels and massive crop failures. It says that it has stopped funding fake grassroots organizations, and that it is sinking a tiny fraction of its profits into alternative energy research.
We say this isn’t good enough. We say that if you act like a plundering villainm you should be treated like a plundering villain. We say it’s time to hand ExxonMobil –the modern world’s equivalent of a traitorous pirate– its very own black spot.
Help us mark ExxonMobil for judgement. Join the strategy talks in the Meme Wars forums at Adbusters.org
