An outfit called CREDO Mobile (formerly Working Assets) is pushing its wireless services with an environmentally-friendly message. What’s notable, however, is that rather than talking in generalities about its position on the environment and other political issues, the company is very specific in who and what it is about as well as in its criticism of its large competitors.
CREDO’s direct mail marketing materials delivered this week open with the following:
“Coal power is the single largest source of global-warming pollution. Concerned people – and companies – should be against it.
“But not AT&T and Verizon (
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“AT&T (
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“And Verizon Wireless? They gave to Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.), whose support for offshore drilling and the dismantling of wilderness protections has consistently earned him low marks on the League of Conversation Voters’ environmental scorecard.”
CREDO says that it, meanwhile, fights for “the progressive causes you believe in, like clean energy, peace, reproductive rights and equality.” According to the company, it has donated more than $60 million to nonprofits, including the National Resources Dense Council and the Sierra Club, since 1985.
Other organizations to which CREDO has donated a portion of customers’ monthly charges (the company offers rate plans starting at $29.99 a month) include the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace and Planned Parenthood, according to company’s Web site, which also includes pages noting its opposition to the Stupak health care amendment; and calling for the ouster of Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has indicated he plans to join with Republicans to filibuster any health care bill that contains a public option.
Laura Scher is CEO and founder of CREDO, whose motto is “more than a network. a movement.” On her bio page on the CREDO site she has written: “As a child of the ‘70s, I was raised in the midst of antiwar marches and the women’s liberation movement. But I was probably first struck by the need for social change when I was 11 and read Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ – the book that pretty much put environmentalism on the map.
“From then on, most of my life’s decisions have been informed by whether or not they effect social change – including my choice of career. I started out with Working Assets – before we changed the name to CREDO – and had the privilege of helping the company and its membership grow into a real force for change. We became this unique long distance company that’s deeply involved in progressive causes, donates millions of dollars to wonderful nonprofits and sends out a phone bill that’s also a citizen action newsletter….”
Edited by
Michael Dinan
