RTMark and Adbusters at the WTO Conference in Seattle

The 1999 WTO (World Trade Organization) Conference in Seattle not only attracted a multitude of demonstrators, but also artistic and cultural activists like RTMark and Adbusters.

Adbusters, well known as fighters against corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy and "physical and mental pollution", timely for the WTO Conference purchased three billboards in downtown Seattle. Featuring an image with the text "System Error - Type 2000 (progress)", the billboards were meant to challenge "... the WTO's agenda of global corporate growth and expose what isn't reflected in the United State's GNP - human and environmental capital."

At the same time RTMark went on-line with its spoof WTO website http://gatt.org. Shortly after its release WTO Director-General Mike Moore accused RTMark of attempting to "undermine WTO transparency" by copying the WTO website's design and using "domain names such as `www.gatt.org` and page titles such as 'World Trade Organization / GATT Home Page' which make it difficult for visitors to realize that these are fake pages." http://gatt.org is not the first time that RTMark has used website imitation aiming at rendering an entity more transparent. RTMark has performed the same "service" for George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Shell Oil, and others with the principal purpose of publicizing corporate abuses of democratic processes.

TEXTBLOCK 1/1 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611652/100438658922
 
Amoco Corporation

American petroleum corporation that was founded in 1889 by the Standard Oil trust to direct the refining and marketing of oil in the Midwestern states. By the late 20th century, American operations still accounted for more than half of Amoco's total assets, though the company has been active in some 40 other countries in the areas of production, refining, and marketing. In addition to refining crude oil, Amoco is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the North American continent.

INDEXCARD, 1/1