The Polaris Institute endorses UK re-think Alberta campaign

For Immediate Release

August 18, Ottawa, Ontario – On the heels of its endorsement of a July ad campaign aimed at branding Alberta as one of the world’s dirtiest energy producing places to visit, the Polaris Institute welcomes Corporate Ethics International’s re-think Alberta campaign encouraging people in the United Kingdom to think twice about visiting Alberta.

Today, eleven digital ads highlighting the environmental and human rights catastrophe caused by the Alberta tar sands were placed around London by Corporate Ethics International. The billboards, which will be accompanied with strategic web-based advertising, are designed to raise awareness about the well documented impacts of the Alberta Tar Sands by asking Britons not to contribute to the problem.

“We see the re-think Alberta campaign as a wake-up call for the people of Alberta. The tar sands will remain ‘the most environmentally destructive project’ in the eyes of the world as long as Albertans continue to accept this mega-project without pressuring their government to take serious action to redress the fundamental flaws at stake,” says Tony Clarke begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Director of the Polaris Institute and author of Tar Sands Showdown: Canada and the New Politics of Oil in an Age of Climate Change (2009).

Recent results from an Angus Reid poll suggest that the re-think Alberta campaign could impact the likelihood of Americans and Britons from visiting the province.

The first phase of the ad campaign consisted of the placement of large billboards in four U.S. cities as well as strategic online advertisements and a web site – rethinkalberta.com. The second phase includes 11 billboards in London and flash and banner ads on all major UK tourism sites as well as Google key word ads.

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For more information please contact Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute, (613) 746-8374 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (613) 746-8374      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, (613) 769-9226 (cell)