FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2008 April 18
Contact: Nancy Richler
Red Nation Media
Phone/FAX 818.904.9256
American Indians Launch Environmental Public Service Campaign
RED is GREEN - American Indians Placed at the Forefront of Global Green
Movement
Los Angeles, CA--April 18, 2008
Red Nation Celebration announced today the launch of a test spot for a new
national public service announcement (PSA) campaign to be launched on Earth
Day, Tuesday, April 22, 2008, that serves to share with the public an
American Indian legacy about reverence and care for Mother Earth.
"Water is our bloodline to Mother Earth," quotes Joanelle Romero, founder
of Red Nation Celebration, the American Indian-owned nonprofit directing
the Campaign. The test spot, which will premiere on Red Nation television
channel and other web-based media, also features the campaign slogan: "RED
is GREEN - Honoring American Indian as our nation's first
environmentalists," which points to the fact that American Indians have
kept environmental traditions alive for thousands of years, living
harmoniously with the living systems of the Earth. The RED is GREEN
Campaign seeks to share this sensibility via six upcoming announcements now
in production, some featuring Academy Award-winning celebrity endorsements.
Although the RED is GREEN Campaign references the iconic "Crying Indian"
PSA campaign launched in 1970, with a weathered Indian (Iron Eyes Cody),
with a tear in his eye overlooking a polluted river; the RED is GREEN test
spot bears a slightly different message: "Water is Sacred." After spanning
polluted waterways, an Indian woman, great with child, is shown as she
kneels at a river and reverently cups water in her hands, blessing it for
the new life she carries. She then offers water to the viewer, just as
Mother Earth gives water to her people.
The Iron Eyes Cody campaign was one of the most successful PSA campaigns in
history. The first Earth Day launched that same year, 1970, beginning a
groundswell of public environmental awareness and activism. "Based on the
tremendous positive reaction to our work and the environmental concern
sweeping the nation, we expect this campaign to create just as striking a
public response," comments Romero. "It is noteworthy that the 1970 campaign
also took place during a highly unpopular US War (Viet Nam). Our people are
compelled to share this potent legacy at this crucial time in our history.
American Indians have retained their language, culture and traditions
despite five centuries of extreme discrimination for doing so. At this time
of global crisis, the American Indian community is coming forward to share
environmental traditions that they have kept alive and traditions that have
kept them alive for thousands of years. They offer these attitudes as keys
for our survival as human beings."
The RED is GREEN Campaign includes television and radio PSAs that
communicate the importance of our relationship to Mother Earth and the
water supply. The PSAs will be distributed to media outlets nationwide and
will run and air in advertising time and space that is donated by the
media. WATCH the RED is GREEN PSA Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Earth Day on
WWW.REDNATION.TV.
In addition to its public education efforts, Red Nation Celebration, an
American Indian-owed nonprofit, gives voice to our nation's first peoples
and shares the treasures of American Indian culture by premiering American
Indian living performing arts to communities and the mainstream media, as
well as, provides empowerment programs for women on reservations. Founded
in 1995 by Joanelle Romero (who is of Cheyenne and Apache bloodlines), Red
Nation was recognized in 2006 by the State of California "for their
tireless efforts to establish the First Annual American Indian Heritage
Month in the City of Los Angeles." Each Red Nation ceremonial cultural
performance evokes connection to Mother Earth and offers participants a
direct experience of the sacred relationship our nation's first peoples
carry for the environment. To learn more about the Red Nation
Celebration visit: www.rednation.com.
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