Rebranding of Chase as Mountaintop Removal Financier Goes Viral

By scott parkin

Last Thursday, Rainforest Action Network along with several online allies including 350.org, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the Waterkeeper Alliance, the Ruckus Society and others re-branded JP Morgan Chase in social media networks as being the largest U.S. funder of mountaintop removal [which is also the truth, BTW].

In the days before, the re-branding of Chase went viral. Armed with a thumbmail picture and a few status messages, people all over the internet let their friends and family know the truth about Chase and mountaintop removal.

Through the course of the day, we hit Chase in the following ways:

-RAN and allies Tweeted to over 330,000 people
-RAN and allies touched 180,000 people on Facebook
-had over 30 unique blogs posted, including posts on Huffington Post, Treehugger and Grist
-had 3,000 people “defriend” the Chase Community Giving Facebook fan page
-reports of dozens of people cancelling their Chase credit cards and bank accounts.
-one Appalachian activist started a “Boycott Chase” Facebook group.

This day of action has actually created a surge of activity amongst RAN and our allies as we’re getting lots of calls from activists and RAN members asking what more they can do to tell Chase to stop funding mountaintop removal.

I love it when online asks turn into offline action.