Fiat Saves the World, and Gets Ads Aired for Free

"Fiat, strapped for cash and struggling to draw attention to the Lancia, decided a few years ago to promote the brand as helping improve society," reports Aaron Patrick. So the company sponsored the Ninth World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, held in Paris in December 2008. The laureates were driven to the summit in black Lancia Deltas, and filmed by the car company as they arrived.

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This Is Your University, on Drugs

In 2002, an independent study on hormone replacement therapy was halted, because the drugs were strongly linked to an "increased risk for breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and blood clots" in women. The same year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison began offering an online course, "funded entirely by a $12 million grant from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals," that "promoted hormone therapy, touted its benefits and downplayed its risks." Wyeth makes two hormone therapy drugs, Prempro and Premarin.

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Coal Industry Front Group's Dirty Tactics

Front Groups - Appearances May Be Deceptive"Our goal is straightforward," wrote the head of the Center for Energy and Economic Development, now called the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. "Persuade states that voluntary sequestration activities and technology investments are appropriate policies to address climate change concerns, while government mandatory controls are not." The 2004 memo (pdf), written to the head of Peabody Energy, also details the industry front group's efforts to "sow discord among the RGGI states," the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative by ten U.S. states. That was done via front group-sponsored research that concluded the RGGI states would face "negative economic consequences" for reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while having "an infinitesimal affect on global GHG concentrations." On the federal level, the memo boasts, "We activated the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) citizen army to call targeted U.S. Senators," in opposition to the McCain-Lieberman climate change bill.

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