Past Campaigns

I Am Progress continues the great tradition of online advocacy campaigns from the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Below are some of our most notable past campaigns:

The Power of Progress Book Forum

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The Golden Pledge (October, 2008)

Americans lost nearly $2 trillion from their retirement accounts in 2008, while Wall Street's financial elites were making away with billions. The Golden Pledge campaign mobilized thousands of activists to oppose privatizing Social Security, seeking to preserve its golden promise of guaranteeing Americans that if we work hard and play by the rules, we will earn the right to retire with dignity.

 

 

Hands Off My Laptop (July 19, 2007)

In response to the 9th Circuit Court granting Customs and Border Patrol at the Department of Homeland Security the green light to search and seize laptops at the border, I Am Progress launched Hands Off My Laptop. We were concerned that CBP's ability to deny entry to anyone who refuses to give up their laptops and password at the border was an affront to our progressive values of privacy and protection from unwarranted search and seizure. We called on CBP to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment, make it public, and implement meaningful privacy protections.

 

 

An Attorney General Who Can "Just Say No" (September 12, 2007)

To pre-empt President Bush's announcement nominating a new Attorney General, Think Progress and External Affairs teamed up to run a campaign mobilizing activists to ask their senators to ask a series of questions regarding whether they would have said "no" to several controversial policies that Alberto Gonzales said "yes" to. The goal of the campaign was to ensure that the new attorney general has the fortitude and judgment to stand up to the White House when they request approval for illegal activities. To spread the word, we used an action webpage for sending messages to senators, with the Think Progress branding, a blog post on Think Progress laying out the case for the action, and e-mails encouraging our activists to take action.

Project Phin: Clean My Ride (July 19, 2007)

Projec t Phin: Clean My Ride, Flex My Fuel was designed to raise awareness about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependency on oil. The CleanMyRide.org action website, videos posted to YouTube, an online petition drive on ThePetiti onSite.com, blog ads, and social networking on MySpace and Faceboo k all functioned to generate buzz throughout the country about the fact that Congress needs to take real action to solve these problems. Pollie Award: Honorable Mention for Best Use of Email / Viral Marketing

Stop the Escalation (February 7, 2007)

When ThinkProgress.org compiled a tally on where members of the House and Senate stand on troop escalation for the conflict in Iraq, Make Progress alerted our subscribed activists to encourage them to make their voices heard by contacting their members of Congress. Make Progress was able to educate constituents about where their representatives and senators stood on the issue while simultaneously allowing citizens to take targeted action by speaking up to their elected representatives.

Kick the Oil Habit and KTOH Road Trip (January 16 and July 12, 2006)

Kick the Oil Habit was a two-part advocacy campaign in support of new energy solutions. The initial action of KickTheOilHabit.org was a message to six major oil companies asking them to double the number of gas stations that provide E85 fuel within a year, and to provide E85 at half of their stations within a decade. We followed this up with the Kick the Oil Habit Road Trip, featuring some great videos of a 3,878 mile cross-country road trip in a FlexFuel car. Final tally for the trip: 214 gallons of fuel, but only 32 gallons of that was gasoline. Along the way, our cross-country adventurers only refueled at gas stations with E85 pumps and interviewed station owners, ethanol producers, and some key influential leaders, providing daily updates, including digital photos, podcasts of interviews, and video streamed online.

Tell ABC (September 29, 2006)

Tell ABC organized thousands of people to call on ABC either to correct the numerous factual inaccuracies or not air its 9/11 mini-series, The Path to 9/11. The campaign was designed to counter efforts by conservatives to re-shape the American public's understanding of 9/11 and the events which led up to the terrorist attack, and to prevent history from being reframed. The movie erroneously placed blame for the failure to prevent the terrorist attacks on the Clinton administration while downplaying the involvement and failures of the Bush administration on this issue. Later on, Tell ABC was briefly revived with the Tell Hannity campaign. Tell Hannity called upon activists and ThinkProgress readers to demand that Sean Hannity inform the American public that his broadcast scenes were fabricated.

Alito's America (December 31, 2005)

The Center for American Progress Action Fund teamed up with Campus Progress to run the Alito's America campaign. Alito's America sought to educate young Americans about what having Judge Alito on the Supreme Court would mean to the future of America. The campaign featured a 90-second video and an interactive photo petition. More than 27,000 people visited the site in just two weeks. Pollie Award: 2006

Torture Is Not US (December 15, 2005)

The Torture Is Not US campaign was launched to support the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment. The campaign saw The American Progress Action Fund and Operation Truth joining forces to lend a credible voice to ensure that the Congress-supported amendment didn't fall victim to a presidential veto.

Through the website, action takers could easily send messages supporting the bill directly to their elected officials. CAPAF also provided information on other ways to learn more and take action to stop torture. The campaign also included a TV ad that ran in the districts of two key congressional leaders, Bill Young (R-FL) and Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), who at the time were the Chair and Vice Chair of the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. An estimated 385,000 people saw the ad on TV and there were another 11,600 views online. The advertisement compared Bush's statement on torture to his reluctance to support the McCain Amendment.

Network for Progress (November 1, 2005)

The Network for Progress campaign sought to influence the outcome of two ballot initiatives in Colorado that would have redressed the so-called "Taxpayer Bill of Rights." This was passed years earlier in Colorado and championed by right-wing ideologues, including Grover Norquist. The site launched eight days before the vote and provided a tool that allowed people to email their friends in Colorado.

Extend the Deadline (October 10, 2005)

The Extend the Deadline campaign's goal was to get FEMA to extend the aid application deadline for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Within a month, FEMA extended all the deadlines. Nearly 10,000 activists sent an email to FEMA through the campaign website.

Be A Witness (July, 2005)

The Be A Witness campaign had a simple message: Tell major American TV networks that genocide is news. Over the course of 12 weeks, the campaign largely accomplished all of its initial objectives. During the summer of 2005, it was the dominant online campaign dedicated to the Darfur genocide, attracting more website visitors than any other site focused on the Sudan. Pollie Award: Gold: Television-National Grassroots / Issue Advocacy / Public Affairs

Drop the Hammer (May 4, 2005)

This was the Center for American Progress Action Fund's first foray into online advocacy. The campaign targeted major, recognizable corporations that had made significant contributions to Tom DeLay's legal defense since 2001. The campaign was multi-faceted. It featured an animation which educated potential action-takers about DeLay's web of corruption. In addition, activists who lived in or near certain target congressional districts were encouraged to utilize a secondary letter-to-editor tool to express their support for the old ethics rules. This allowed for the targeting of newspapers in the districts of representatives who were potential swing supporters of the Mollohan resolution to restore the House Ethics rules.