Inspired by sustained support for an end to torture from the world community and a clear majority of Americans, Avaaz.org launched a metro billboard ad campaign to remind policymakers that torture is illegal, unethical and a top recruiting tool for the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.



The ads (which are running at Farragut North Station and in a Washington Paper) feature Osama bin Laden in an "I love Gitmo" t-shirt (an acknowledgement that Al Qaeda uses the prison to recruit terrorists) and include quotes from President Obama and Presidential candidate John McCain.

Click here to download the press release

Thanks go to the thousands of Avaaz members who donated to fund this campaign. Our global voices are vital if we are to see Guantanamo Bay closed, a total ban on torture, and the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into past practices. If you would like to make a further donation for this ongoing campaign - click here.

Some of the media achieved from the campaign is listed below:

Times of Malta

Agence France Press

Yahoo Espana

Middle East Online

With the conflict in Gaza escalating beyond control, Avaaz ran the following ad in the Washington Post and the Congressional Paper, Roll Call. The ad, which was an appeal for strong U.S. leadership to broker a ceasefire, also delivered an Avaaz ceasefire petition signed by 500,000 people. To see the campaign click here.

During the closing days of a two-week critical UN climate change conference in Poland, the world was in danger of losing momentum towards a new global climate treaty. Simultaneous climate discussions at the European Union in Brussels had seen Germany attempt to block progress and seek concessions for its heavily polluting industries -- a move that divided Europe and undermined European leadership at the UN talks.

Former climate hero, German Chancellor Merkel, appeared to have turned climate villain. The reason: a combination of the economic crisis and a 2009 election year meant that Merkel was seriously feeling the pressure to cut spending on environmental programs. With the voice of German industry growing louder in Merkel's ear, it was clear that German public opinion needed as say as well. Avaaz commissioned independent national polls in Germany (as well as in Poland and Italy, two other countries blocking progress). The polls asked a simple question, do voters think there is a compromise between environmental protection and climate action. On the final day of the UN talks in the Poland, Avaaz published the polling results and a message to Merkel as a 3-page series of ads in the official conference newspaper the Gazeta Wyborcza. You can see the ads below, and then click here to read more about our climate campaigning during these December meetings.

The ad below ran in the European Voice, the main EU newspaper in Brussels, on 4 December:

These ads ran on 5 December 2008 in De Morgen and La Libre Belgique in Belgium:

The ad below ran, full-page black and white, in the swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheters (4 December, 2008). Click here to download a high resolution pdf

The ad below ran, full-page black and white, in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad (3 December, 2008). Click here to download a high resolution pdf

The ad below ran, full-page black and white, in today's The Times of London newspaper (17 November, 2008). Click here to download a high resolution pdf

For the last two years, the Harper government has done everything it could to wreck the world's efforts to fix climate change. At UN negotiations, Canada has been voted the WORST country in the world on climate change 3 times! Now, it's election time, and we have to make sure that Harper pays the price at the polls for his reckless and un-Canadian climate policy.

Avaaz is targeting 3 of Harper's top lieutenants (including Environment Minister John Baird) where it will hurt them the most -- at the grass roots. Together, we will try to stop their re-election with ad campaigns telling their constituents just how irresponsible they've been in the name of all Canadians. We'll beat them not by supporting any one party, but by appealing to all voters to help save the planet by voting for the candidate most likely to beat the Conservatives. Below, are the first two of a series of ads we will be running. To help launch the campaign and run the ads, please click here to donate!

During the Beijing Olympics, Avaaz spread an Olympic message of peace and hope to Chinese diaspora communities in New York and San Francisco by running a series of mobile billboards. The ads were part of our Handshake campaign to spread a powerful, unambiguous message of peace, friendship and dialogue to the Olympics and countries around the world. The ads spent a few days in the Chinatowns of these cities and then drove around the city centres. Check out the photos, below:

In English (click image to download print-ready PDF):

In Chinese (click image to download print-ready PDF):

On August 8, the opening day of the Beijing Olympics, Avaaz had a team of people walking on foot through central London, with billboards calling for meaningful dialogue from the Chinese on Darfur, Burma, and Tibet. It was part of our Handshake campaign to spread a powerful, unambiguous message of peace, friendship and dialogue to the Olympics and countries around the world. The Look-Walkers walked through Chinatown and then headed up to Trafalgar Square where the launch of the 2008 Olympics was being shown on jumbo Tv screens. Check out the photos, below:

These ads served as part of our Olympics handshake campaign which was launched ahead of the Beijing Olympics as a moment to bring global citizens together in the spirit of Olympic solidarity to call for progress on Tibet, Darfur and Burma. Prior to the games, the Chinese government still hasn't opened meaningful dialogue on Tibet or made progress on Burma and Darfur -- and global activists' messages were being lost in a firestorm of accusations about being anti-Chinese.

The handshake attempted to take the Olympic moment back with a powerful, unambiguous message of peace, friendship and dialogue. It began with the Dalai Lama, passing through the streets of London, and then it went online where hundreds of thousands of people joined in. Finally, the message was spread further around the world through a massive Olympic media campaign before the closing ceremonies. The ads appeared on billboards and in newspapers from San Francisco to London, Athens to Singapore.

Love China, Love Tibet:




Love China, Love Darfur




Love China, Love Burma/Myanmar

The International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's President Omar Al Bashir for genocide.

Check our ad campaign to support ICC initiative:

The ad below ran, full-page black and white, in today's Financial Times newspaper (9 July, 2008). Click here to download a print-ready PDF file.

This ad ran in glorious full-page colour in all editions of today's Financial Times -- sponsored and endorsed by Avaaz members in 166 countries. (Click here for a print-ready huge PDF.)

This ad ran, full-page in black and white, in all editions of the Financial Times today (Monday, July 7, 2008). A print-ready, 3.8MB PDF file can be accessed at this link. The press release is online here.

More ads will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The United Nations is preparing to select its next Human Rights Commissioner. Avaaz believes that there needs to be more transparency surrounding the appointment of high level international officials such as this.

To make the process more transparent, we've created this site where you can learn about the candidates, see our recruitment ad in The Economist, and generally be more engaged in the selection process for this important position.

After January's presidential election was tainted by vote-tampering - Kenya's future hung in the balance, with over 600 killed and 250,000 made homeless. Avaaz members played a crucial role in supporting Kofi Annan's mediation efforts by sending 90,000 messages to foreign ministers urging them to refuse to recognize any government until it was legitimately established.

www.avaaz.org/en/kenya_free_and_fair/

As part of our climate campaigning around the Bali climate meeting, Canada's position at negotiations was also targeted with a national ad campaign. The campaign was accompanied by one of the largest online actions in Canadian history -- 113,000 signers in 3 days! After Prime Minister Harper reversed his position on emissions targets, opposition leader Stephane Dion filmed a message to Avaaz exclaiming: "Avaaz members, reversing the bad policy of a government, this is great... join Avaaz, because it works!"






Here's a scan of the ad appearing in the paper:

During major UN climate negotiations in December 2007, more than 180,000 Avaaz members added their name to a global emergency petition calling on Bush, Harper, and Fukuda to get on the right side of history and support emissions cuts. We delivered these signatures in a full page ad in the special conference section of the Jakarta Post which was distributed to every delegate in Bali. The ad caused a stir at the conference and was widely reported in the media - it told the rest of the world to stand firm against the climate wreckers.

In November, 2007 the people of Pakistan overcame violence & rigging to cast a clear vote for civilian democracy. 75% wanted President Musharraf to go, but he refused, hinting he could dismiss the new parliament.

The Avaaz community backed up the people of Pakistan by endorsing and funding this advert which appeared in The News, a respected broadsheet read by politicians, ambassadors and generals alike. The ad's centrepiece was our petition calling for democracy to be supported not undermined.

When 21 Korean aid workers were kidnapped by the Taliban Avaaz quickly drafted a petition calling on the Afghan Pashtunwali code of "hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers" as an argument to release the hostages. The kidnapping is a clear violation of the code, offending the weary people of Afghanistan on whom they depend. Over 100,000 people answered the call which was published in the Afghan paper, the Killid Weekly. In the end the hostages were released.

www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code/

Our Real Peace Talks Now billboards are going up in Jerusalem this week - and here they are! They're designed especially to make an impact on the Israeli public - hence the Hebrew - and the concept is Arab Travel Deal / Peace Deal.

At first they look just like ordinary travel ads, and Israelis love to travel. But the idea that they might be able to travel to Damascus or Dubai (if they only sit down and start to negotiate on the basis of the Saudi Initiative...) is pretty wild in Israel -- and our soundings indicate these billboards could make waves. "80,000 Avaaz supporters demand Real Peace Talks Now" is the punchline. Ads and translations below...

Celebrate Shavuot (upcoming Jewish holiday) in Syria - just $390
* price for one room, double bed - depends on negotiating the Saudi Initiative

80,000 global e-activists demand Real Peace Talks Now

Dreamy weekend in Saudi Arabia - only $490
* price for one room, double bed - depends on negotiating the Saudi Initiative

80,000 global e-activists demand Real Peace Talks Now

We'll try to get a photo of the billboards in situ when they go up on Thursday...

Thanks to everyone who has participated in our Iraq campaign. We have now raised over 10,000 US dollars, which enabled us to run our advertisement urging the US Congress to block the escalation of troops in Iraq. The ad ran on page 19 of the 17 January 2007 edition of Roll Call, a Washington D.C.-based newspaper that is distributed to the White House, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.

Click here to see a full size version of the Ad.

Avaaz.org now has profiles on MySpace, Friendster, Flickr, and Facebook. Please show your support and help us to spread the word about our campaigns and our organization by clicking on the links above and adding Avaaz.org to your list of online friends.