RAN Launches Ad Campaign to Challenge New Chevron CEO John Watson

For Immediate Release:

January 25, 2009

Contact:

Brianna Cayo Cotter, Rainforest Action Network, (415) 659-0534

Rainforest Action Network Launches Ad Campaign to Challenge New Chevron CEO John Watson

National print and online ad campaign calls on Chevron’s new CEO to save lives by cleaning up 18 billion gallons of oil pollution in the Ecuadorean rainforest

San Francisco – For the next week Rainforest Action Network is running a series of advertisements targeting Chevron’s new CEO John Watson in The New York Times and Washington Post online. The color advertisements depict John Watson’s face, accompanied by the message; “Chevron’s oil men have polluted the Ecuadorean rainforest for decades.  This man can do something about it now.” The Rainforest Action Network is delivering The New York Times newspaper ads directly to John Watson’s neighbors and employees in Lafayette and San Ramon, CA.

Rainforest Action Network (RAN), an international organization with twenty-five years of success transforming the environmental and social policies of America’s most powerful corporations, is spearheading a new campaign to Change Chevron. The campaign unites shareholders, investors, celebrities, religious leaders, students, policy makers and communities to challenge Chevron’s new CEO, John Watson, to clean up their toxic legacy in Ecuador, develop a global environment and human rights policy that will prevent similar tragedies in the future, and adopt aggressive strategies to transition to clean energy.

“Chevron’s new CEO John Watson has a tremendous opportunity, and responsibility, to transform his company into one that cares,” said Maria Ramos, Change Chevron Campaign Director at Rainforest Action Network. “Chevron’s current business model, in Ecuador and around the world, is destroying lives, communities, and our planet. John Watson must do the right thing, starting by cleaning up one of the largest environmental disaster in history.”

The advertising campaign refers to Chevron’s responsibility to clean up their mess in the Ecuadorean rainforest.  As the ad copy states, “Chevron is responsible for more than 18 billion gallons of toxic sludge deliberately dumped into Ecuador’s rainforest- leaving local people a legacy of cancers, miscarriages, and death.” Chevron is currently facing a $27.3 billion pollution judgment against the company in an Ecuadorean court over Chevron’s toxic legacy in the Amazon rainforest. A ruling is likely in the case within the next few months.

To view the ad and for more information about the campaign, visit www.ChangeChevron.org.