Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Oxford Climate Action Spin The Spinners!

Oxford Climate Action | 16.07.2008 09:59 | Climate Camp 2008 | Climate Chaos | Oxford

Oxford Climate Action activists have today
blockaded the headquarters of Edelman PR. They arrived at 9:30 to
protest the PR giant's collusion with E-On in "greenwashing" its
proposed Kingsnorth power station development. Several protestors
gained access to the firms offices. Others outside climbed onto the
roof to unfurl a banner reading "Edelman: Spinning The Climate Out
Of Control" as another colourful contingent spoke to
passers by about the protest. MP John MC Donnell has also dropped by to lend his support.

Edelman have been employed by E-On to promote "E.On's interests
across the gas, coal, nuclear and renewables sectors, not just
lobbying for Kingsnorth"[1]. Today, they have sponsored a climate
change summit along with BMW. The protestors claim that this is a
conscious tactic to become green by association without taking
meaningful action to stop climate change. The protesters also aim
to highlight the insanity of investing in new coal power stations
like Kingsnorth, in the face of human caused climate change[2].


Protestor Debbie Locke said, "Coal is the dirtiest form of fossil
fuel.
Edelman are telling E-On to say that Carbon Capture and Storage can
help. But CCS is an unproven technology and 20 years away at the
earliest.[3][4] We're here to reclaim the PR machine for normal
people who want to see real action on climate change not another
dose of corporate greenwash".

The protestors have been inspired to take action by the Camp for
Climate Action which will take place at Kingsnorth from 3-11 August
this year.

Edelman have a long record of involvement with ethically
questionable companies seeking to improve their image, including
AstraZeneca[6], WalMart[7], Pfizer[8].

Contact: 0781 8021 298

--- ENDS ---

Notes For Editors

[1] Clare O'Connor, 'EON turns to Edelman as nuclear debate rages',
PR Week, 13.03.08 prweek.com/uk/news/article/790575/EON-turns-
Edelman-nuclear-debate-rages
[2] See ipcc.ch
[3] DBERR, Energy Markets Outlook states that CCS will deliver "no
carbon savings in the forecast years until 2020 and then 0.3 MtC".
 http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file41995.pdf
[4] The IPCC says that it is unlikely that CCS would be deployed
until the mid 21st century.
 http://arch.rivm.nl/env/int/ipcc/pages_media/SRCCS-
final/SRCCS_WholeReport.pdf
[5] The Camp For Climate Action believes that "large numbers of
determined and well-organised people get together they can turn
things around, making a historic difference." Last year's camp
engaged several thousand people to take direct action at Heathrow
Airport.  http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/home
[6]
 http://www.prweek.com/uk/sectors/healthcare/article/825671/edelman-
overhauls-team-md-leaves/
[7] "AstraZeneca, the large pharmaceutical company, pleaded guilty
today to a felony charge of health care fraud and agreed to pay
$355 million to settle criminal and civil accusations that it
engaged in a nationwide scheme to illegally market a prostate
cancer drug."
 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E7D8163BF932A1575
5C0A9659C8B63
[8] WalMart has been called "The most ruthless company in the
world" due to its appalling record on human rights, contempt for
communities and the environment
 http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/03/16/low-hanging-fruit/
[9] Pfizer has been involved in price fixing, illegally testing
drugs on children, blocking efforts to allow people in developing
countries access to life-saving drugs and selling drugs linked to
adverse side effects in pets:
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=330#aids

Oxford Climate Action

Additions

UPDATE: Pictures from the Edelmans protest

16.07.2008 10:53






Pictures of the protes at Edelmans HQ attached

Oxford Climate Action


UPDATE: Two arrests

16.07.2008 12:04

The two activists who went in side have been arrested and taken to Belgravia police station.

The activists on the roof have come down and will probably have a bit of a sit down now. No other arrests.

Oxford Climate Action


Edelman's response to the demonstration

17.07.2008 11:34

Tim from Edelman UK PR has responded to this action by posting on the Corporate Watch blog:  http://corporatewatch.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/spinning-the-spinners-oxford-climate-action-address-edelmans-greenwash/#comment-3490

Address from Robert Phillips, Edelman's UK CEO can be viewed here:
 http://www.chatteringclass.co.uk/?p=59

Corporate Watcher
- Homepage: http://www.corporatewatch.org


Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Nice one!

16.07.2008 11:12

Brilliant action - really inspiring. Nice one, Oxford; challenging Greenwash all around London.

Seeya at the camp.

Oxford Activista
- Homepage: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk


We will respond

17.07.2008 12:34

Fear not, we have seen the video and are currently working out how to respond. We have quite a fun idea though :)

Have no doubt that some of the statements in that video are categorically fabricated. We love PR!

Roof occupier


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech