This week, Avaaz has been running an advertisement on Washington DC television spoofing ExxonMobil's hypnotically disingenuous ad campaign—you know, the ones where friendly, nerdy people tell you how their work at ExxonMobil will help the environment.

The message of our ad was simple: while ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies now talk a good game on climate change, they're still lobbying full-force to prevent a strong global climate treaty. The kind of treaty Obama can help create—if the rest of us give him the political support to do it.

Well, yesterday, ExxonMobil responded to the ad. Apparently, they were mystified.

"They seem to be critical of our desire to communicate our positions on climate change, which we don't understand," said Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers.

Mr. Jeffers, sorry for confusing you! Perhaps we could be more clear. We have no problem with ExxonMobil's "desire to communicate." It's ExxonMobil's positions on climate change that we're critical of... and the fact that the communications in question don't actually communicate them.

In fact, if ExxonMobil is really eager to communicate their positions on climate change, then they should be welcoming our ad! Take a look:

The truth is, Exxon spent at least $29 million on lobbying in the US last year alone—and is on track to spend even more on a lobbying and advertising blitz this year. While ExxonMobil might not be funding climate denialists to distort science any longer (it lost that battle), it hasn't switched sides in the climate wars. Now, they're just wearing the other side's uniforms. ExxonMobil's strategy is to divert the growing momentum for effective global and national policies by greenwashing itself—and lobbying hard behind the scenes.

Most of their ads showcase research projects or promote the virtues of personal energy efficiency. Unmentioned by the $400-billion-plus company is the fact that their entire business model relies on continually increasing the burning of carbon-based fuels. Watching the ads, a conscientious consumer could conclude that ExxonMobil is to clean energy what the Gates Foundation is to global health. The more appropriate analogy would be Phillip Morris.

(Sometimes the ads are misleading—not just in their underlying message—but also in their particulars: Last year, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority banned an ExxonMobil ad for claiming, falsely, that liquefied natural gas was "one of the world's cleanest fuels.")

ExxonMobil's feel-good ads showcasing hydrogen fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, and tire technology aren't about "communicating their positions on climate change." They're about calming down a public that has become rightly infuriated by fossil-fuel industry obstructionism of real climate action. And they're about distracting attention from ExxonMobil's own lobbying against the cap-and-trade legislation and binding global treaty that the world urgently needs.

We suspect that, in fact, Mr. Jeffers understands this all too well.

Today, Coldy 3000 took one step closer towards existence.

In just 4 days, over 123,000 Avaaz members from around the world answered Coldy's call and signed a petition urging the European Union to adopt strong efficiency standards for energy-using products. Today, Avaaz Campaign Director, Luis Morago, along with partners from Friends of the Earth Europe, Natuur en Milieu and some penguins delivered the petition straight to European decision makers -- specifically the Head of Unit of Transparency and Relations with Stakeholders, Gerard Legris, on behalf of President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. The delivery was a great success with plenty of interest from the press and many bystanders stayed, charmed by the penguins' music and dance. In the coming days, we will also be delivering the petition to high representatives of the Czech Presidency of the EU in Brussels.

But above all else, we're having an impact! Sources tell us that the debate is getting hotter and much more political, thanks largely to increased pressure from campaigning organisations. Stay tuned to the Avaaz blog for more info!

Here is a video of today's event, and check out the photos beneath!

Liberata Rumumba is a displaced person from eastern Congo - in the video, she appeals to us to press our leaders to protect her fellow civilians there. You can donate to support our European ad campaign here. This video appeal was recorded by an Avaaz member in eastern Congo.

Avaaz co-founder and Executive Director Ricken Patel appeared on the BBC one-to-one interview program HARDtalk last week to discuss Avaaz, Burma, the Middle East, and our model of gobal online campaigning. You can watch the interview here, or just click below:

Avaaz.org's Ricken Patel on BBC World's HARDtalk.

David Miliband/Avaaz.org Chatham House Speech (Highlights)

Watch the full-length, 52-minute video of the event here.

David Miliband, the new UK Foreign Secretary, will be giving his first major speech this Thursday (19 July 2007) at an event co-hosted by Avaaz. YouTubers around the world have the opportunity to ask Miliband a question at the event. Upload your question in the form of a video response to this video before 19 July 2007 and make your voice heard!
Intro and Outro music courtesy of Hepnova

After 10 years under Tony Blair, Britain has a new government -- and its new Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, promises to "listen as well as lead". This could be a new beginning for British foreign policy -- and the UK has a huge effect on the global issues we care about, climate change, global poverty, Iraq, Israel-Palestine and more.

Remarkably, impressed by our momentum, Miliband has asked Avaaz to co-host his first major speech this Thursday -- and agreed to take questions and comments from all of us as Avaaz members. He promises "A New Diplomacy", and wants to get off on the right foot by making our community - and global public opinion - his first audience. Do you have a question for the new British foreign affairs chief? A statement, piece of advice, warning or encouragement? We'll put Avaaz members' questions to him after his speech, and compile your words of advice into a book that he will keep in his office and consult when looking for the views of people around the world. Click below now to contribute a question or comment:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/ask_miliband

Miliband is asking himself some questions too: what Britain's foreign priorities should be, how to be more multilateral. It's fine to be challenging (you might want to ask what he'll do about one of our campaigns!) but please keep it appropriate and respectful. We're also hoping that some Avaaz members will submit their questions via video - it would be particularly powerful for our members from the Middle East, Asia or Africa to ask questions by video. (Just email comments@avaaz.org for help if you need it.) And a webcast of the whole event will be on the site after Thursday.

The best time to influence a government is in its first few days in power. We'll judge David Miliband by his actions -- and take nothing for granted. But if we are to make the views and values of the world's people shape global decisions, we need to engage openly and honestly with the people who decide. This is a great opportunity for our community to do just that.

So let's test the waters -- and give this Foreign Secretary some food for thought

http://www.avaaz.org/en/ask_miliband

In hope,

Paul, Iain, Ricken, Graziela, Galit, Ben, Lee-Sean and the whole Avaaz team

For more information on Miliband, check out the links below:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/julian_borger/2007/06/the_appointment_of_david_milib.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Miliband

PS YouTube is the best place to post a video response - email comments@avaaz.org if you have a webcam but don't know how to upload video!

And to watch the webcast of the event at any time, just visit the same link after Thursday: http://www.avaaz.org/en/ask_miliband

Avaaz's video, "Stop the Clash of Civilizations," has won the people's choice for the Best Awareness-Raising Video category of the Progressive Source Awards. If you haven't watched it already, check it out on YouTube.

Thanks to everyone for voting for us!

English
Right click (or control-click) the links below and choose "save as" to download the videos.
MP4 Video
Quicktime Video (high resolution)
MP3 (Audio Only)

Español
Vídeo MP4
Vídeo Quicktime (alta resolución)

Português
Vídeo MP4
Vídeo Quicktime (alta resolução)

Français
MP4 Video
Vidéo Quicktime (haute résolution)

Music by/Música por/Musique par: HEPNOVA

Yet more proof of the widespread disapproval of the illegal prison in Guantanamo Bay. Pressure to close down that human rights nightmare is growing inside the USA and elsewhere.
Our good friend Alex at MTV News did a special on Guantanamo that highlights the horrible conditions of detainees.
Thanks for linking to Avaaz!
If you haven't signed the petition, do so today!

As a global community, we're scattered across every corner of the planet. That's what makes the Avaaz family different and special.

Thanks to our awesome supporters in Washington, who carried our flags and brought our petition (that's right almost 52,000 people in more than 180 countries!) to World Bank Head Quarters, our message was heard loud and clear.

Mad props to Ben, who made it all possible...

Here he is....The tallest man in DC....Making us proud.

Also, check out all the international press we have gotten.

Dear friends,

I have a quick favor to ask of you.

A short video I worked on, Avaaz.org's "Stop the Clash of Civilizations," is a finalist in an online nonprofit video competition. We need your vote to help us win. Winning the competition will help us further our mission of promoting peace talks in the Middle East and raising public awareness about the issue. Talk is rising of a 'clash of civilizations'. But the problem isn't culture, it's politics - from 9/11 to Guantanamo, Iraq to Iran. This clash is not inevitable, and we don't want it. So where to start?

Watch the video (entry number 1) and vote for us here: http://dogooder.tv/contest.aspx

You have to register before you can vote online, but it's quick and painless. Or you can vote with your cell phone by texting ntcvideo1 to 75528 (no registration necessary). Winners will be announced on April 5.

Our video is one of 6 finalists. If you have time, take a look at our competition's videos too - they are all very well-done and support good causes. All six finalists will be screened at the Nonprofit Technology Network Conference (http://www.nten.org/ntc-video) in Washington DC early April.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project.

Things are really heating up on the Stop the Clash campaign - over 40,000 Avaaz members have now signed the petition. But it's critical that we get the number of signers as high as possible before we take it to world leaders. We need to get over
60,000 - another 20,000 - and we need to use internet tools to help reach the millions of people who agree with us, but don't know about the campaign yet.

Are you registered on Digg.com? If you're already a user then please
digg the Middle East petition page here.

If you haven't heard about Digg, it's an online chart of the best stories, sites and videos on the web. After you sign up (don't worry, you can tell them not to send you unwanted e-mails), you can then "digg" pages you like, either when someone else has added them, or because you add them yourself. You can also find out which pages are the most popular with other Diggers at the moment. So, register as a digg user and then don't forget to digg our Stop the Clash campaign!!

Check out 'Stop The Clash' - our new video manifesto against the so-called 'Clash of Civilizations', and for the values, the goals, and the life we share, all around the world.

Add your voice to the campaign for Real Peace Talks, share the vid around - and tell us (and each other) what you think through the comments below!

More soon - from facts and figures to backstory......

For now, if you want to post the video on your site - just like here - go to the campaign page and cut and paste the code on the middle-right of the page.

Full credit to the all-stars at Ruckus who made the video happen, to DJ Spooky for his buzzing soundtrack, over a hundred global citizens who pitched in with ideas and feedback over the last month, the creativity that went into all the pieces of the puzzle and the 30,000 of us who already joined the Real Talks campaign..........

We're still just at the start.

Avanti!

We told you "Stop the Escalation" was just the beginning! So it gives us great pleasure to announce the launch of AVAAZ's new campaign: "Climate Wake up Call": a campaign in response to the impending global climate crisis.

As if there wasn't already enough evidence around us, last week the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released its latest report. The message is simple and scary: climate change is real; it's caused by humans; it's occurring quicker than predicted; it's more severe than we previously thought; and if we don't do something fast it's going to have potentially catastrophic effects.

While there are some good things that each of us can do to reduce our carbon footprint to really solve this problem we need serious political action. Unfortunately the Kyoto Protocol does not go nearly far enough and the current commitment period ends very soon. If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change we desperately need world leaders to hammer out a new international agreement that commits all countries to major emissions reductions. This can only come about if the world leaders make climate change their number 1 priority.

This is why we've produced this TV ad. Our leaders are sleeping through climate change and we have to send them a wake up call. We are going to run the ad in key world capitals this month starting with Washington DC, Paris, Berlin and Delhi. Hopefully if people get excited about it will be able to run it in other major cities too.

Now is the time to send this message because the leaders of the world's biggest polluting countries will be meeting in June. The priorities for this summit are currently being decided and we need to make sure that tackling climate is at the top of the agenda. There is no more time to lose. Our leaders need to start figuring out the details of a new Kyoto Protocol ASAP. This is not some minor issue that can be dealt with by low-level bureaucrats - Presidents and Prime Ministers need to sort out a serious new agreement fast.

Climate change is a great example of a truly global problem that requires a truly global solution. People around the world have to push hard for climate leadership. And this is where AVAAZ comes in, uniting voices to influence major world decisions. Ultimately the future of our planet is in our hands, there's a lot you can do: sign our petition, watch our ad, post our link, and tell your family and friends about us.

Tell us what you think, send us suggestions, ideas, comments, anything- we need to do this together!

2007 is already predicted by scientists to be the hottest year on record. Together we can turn up the heat on the world leaders and really wake them up!