FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2002Scott Lynch 202.862.9740x3030
mobile-703.725.5680Enron "Pigs in Space" Star Wars Ad Hits DC Metro and Boston "T"
WASHINGTON, DC - Starting on Monday October 7th, three hundred and fifty DC Metro rail cars and one hundred "T" stops in Boston will be displaying a unique advertising campaign developed by Avenging Angels, Inc. of NYC. The ads compare the Star Wars Ballistic Missile Defense Program with Enron-the name that the general public equates with corporate scandal and malfeasance.
The "Missile Defense (a.k.a. Star Wars) is Enron in Space" ads feature a graphic that shows three pink pigs whose effluent is blasting them through space with the blue orb of earth below (ad can be viewed at www.peace-action.org). The ad displays open with, "The same greed, dishonesty and deception that shocked America in the Enron scandal is rampant in the $238-billion Pentagon Pig-Out called National Missile Defense."
Shelagh Foreman of Massachusetts Peace Action said, "the Bush administration's Star Wars missile defense plan, which recklessly throws other's money-taxpayer's-at schemes that benefit only a select few, closely resembles the swindles that the President's friend Kenneth Lay perpetrated as the head of Enron. Many of the elements that were found at Enron were, or are, present in the Star Wars program that Bush champions-cooked books, oversight stripped out of the regulatory process, insider access bought with campaign dollars and, of course, the taxpayers and the little guy picking up the tab."
The ads also feature a box with items that the two scandals have in common. After each item there is a checkmark for both Star Wars and Enron. The items are: 1. Bad News Shredded, Fictional Success Concocted 2. Books Cooked, Oversight Stripped Away 3. Whistle-blowers Silenced, Critics Fired 4. Taxpayers Bilked, Insiders Enriched 5. White House Influence Bought with Campaign $$ (background information on these points is available at www.peace-action.org).
The ad text concludes with, "This 'well-orchestrated fraud' is widely denounced by serious scientists. Over $100-billion has already been wasted on what all experts agree is, since 9/11, America's least likely threat! Add your voice to the outrage: Join Peace Action's campaign to end this boondoggle."
"Bush and his administration, in true Enron style, are simultaneously distracting attention from Star Wars and their many other scandals, making a grab for more assets in the form of Iraq's oil, and attempting to enlarge their influence in the government by widening Republican seats in the Congress. It is indeed Enron writ large. A scandal that is, at its core, a gigantic betrayal of public trust. Our ads are intended to be a well-timed wake-up call to Congress and the public," concluded Peace Action Executive Director Kevin Martin.
Peace Action (the merger of Sane and The Nuclear Freeze) is the nation's largest peace and disarmament organization.
