100,000 Supporters Sign On to "Wake Up America,"
Fight for Fiscal Responsibility
Fight for Fiscal Responsibility
NEW YORK -- More than 100,000 Americans have joined the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's effort to wake up the country to the need for greater fiscal responsibility - a milestone the Foundation is marking just eight weeks after its official launch in July.
"In two short months, we couldn't be happier with the reaction to the Foundation and this support we are getting," said David M. Walker, the Foundation's president and CEO. "We've reached out aggressively to Americans, and they've responded in a big way."
The Foundation's success comes after an innovative marketing effort leveraging new media and popular media, including extensive outreach to the blogosphere and through social networks and text-messaging, and the launch of "I.O.U.S.A.", the critically acclaimed feature documentary highlighting America's $53 trillion fiscal burden. That is the sum of all the government's current financial obligations including unfunded promises for Social Security and Medicare - a $455,000 bill for every American household.
Two weeks ago, "I.O.U.S.A." held a record-setting premiere followed by an unprecedented, nationally broadcast town hall on economic issues featuring Warren Buffett, Foundation Chairman Pete Peterson, and Walker. The live event was beamed via satellite to more than 350 movie theaters around the country and included questions for the panelists that were submitted through the movie's website, www.IOUSAtheMovie.com. Highlights from the discussion can be found at http://www.youtube.com/iousathemovie.
In addition to signing up 100,000 supporters, the Foundation is pleased to announce the following achievements:
- thousands of blog mentions for "I.O.U.S.A.," the Peterson Foundation, and Walker (source: Technorati)
- a massive "Google footprint" of nearly 1 million results for these same search terms
- "I.O.U.S.A" cracking the top 100 grossing documentaries (source: Box Office Mojo)
"Cynics doubted our ability to build a movement around fiscal responsibility," Walker said. "Judging by the outpouring thus far, it seems that we're off to a fine start in turning such a movement into reality."
About the Peter G. Peterson Foundation:
Founded by the senior chairman of The Blackstone Group with a personal commitment of at least $1 billion, the Foundation is dedicated to increasing public awareness of the nature and urgency of several key challenges threatening America's future, and to accelerating action on them. To address these challenges successfully, we will work to bring Americans together to find sensible, long-term solutions that transcend age, party lines and ideological divides in order to achieve real results. For more information, see www.PGPF.org.
####
Media inquiries only:
Elizabeth Wilner / Myra Sung
212-542-9200
