Act Now: "Show Big Oil We Won't Be Bullied"

Upon entering the ONE campaign site this week, it was hard to miss what their current focus is on: BIG OIL Companies. An ad urging people to sign the petition in support of the Cardin - Lugar Amendment is the first thing you see when opening the webpage with a short description of why we won't be "bullied" by big oil companies. This amendment, which was passed in 2010, "requires oil, gas, and mining companies to reveal their payments to foreign governments." This law would require the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "to develop the implementing regulation - or "rule" by April 2011." Many of the larger gas, oil, and mining companies have been pressuring the SEC to weaken the rule though, in an effort to hide the actual amounts spent and deals made with governments from various countries. ONE is fighting this because many of the countries rich in oil and other natural resources are also some of the poorest countries that would benefit from the money their governments receive. The lack of government transparency and the lethargic process the SEC is taking to pass their "rule" has ONE working hard to spread awareness and gain support to see some action and soon. The law would require "oil, gas, and mining companies... to disclose what they pay to U.S. governments and foreign governments as part of their annual filings to the [SEC]." This information would then be accessible to the public and would be especially important to those working to "activist groups trying to hold their governments accountable for spending oil and mineral wealth." All of this information was found on the ONE website fact sheet, provided by Publish What You Pay, and can be found here: http://www.one.org/c/us/policybrief/4200/.

While reading through this week's Gitlan reading, one thing that stuck out to me about the ONE campaign was their use of celebrities in advertisements and endorsments. Many large celebrities like Bono, George Clooney, and Angelina Jolie have all endorsed the ONE campaign and the total celebrity supporters list has over 50 listed. While Gitlan first talks about how leadership leads to celebrity I feel like ONE uses these celebrities to encouage leadership. It could be said that some celebrities may have used the ONE campaign to improve their charitable reputations, but we like to believe that most were genuinely concerned and supportive of the causes ONE represents. Their popularity enhances the movement and reflectong on that, this point in the reading really stuck out to me: "The all-permeating spectacular culture insisted that the movement be identified through its celebrities; naturally it attracted personalities who enjoyed performance, who new how to flaunt some symbolic attribute, who spoke quotably." Before learning more about ONE the name that I associated most with the campaign was BONO, who obviously has the qualities that Gitlan mentioned. Although his writing was published years ago, it's interesting to see how these celebrity endorsments have evolved over a few decades and still hold these qualities. This could be because of the evolving culture of the media and society and the everlasting hype that surrounds "celebrity." Either way, in the case of the ONE campaign, the use of celebrity has enhanced the movement and worked to spread awareness.