Pencils2MediaMoguls

Send Pencils to Support the Writers! A Buck a Box!

WWW.UnitedHollywood.com

What is Pencils2MediaMoguls?
UnitedHollywood.com asking people to use our site to buy pencils to send to the six media moguls who run the six corporate conglomerates.

Why pencils?
A lot of different fan sites were suggesting that people send pencils to networks and studios. United Hollywood and Strike Points met with some of the television showrunners, and together we decided to follow the fans’ lead.

Pencils have become the symbol of our cause: We are putting them down until we get a fair deal.

Symbolism, whatever. Let’s face it -- isn’t this kind of a waste of pencils?
We were worried about that too, so we found a vendor who makes environmentally sensitive product: California Republic Stationers. Their pencils are made from sustainably harvested wood, which means they don’t deforest.

We’ll also send the media moguls suggestions about where they can donate the pencils to non-profits that teach kids how to write. After all, the CEO’s aren’t writers. It’s not like they can use them.

What happens to the money from the pencils?
Anything we have left over from our costs will go into the Union Solidarity Fund, which was created to help non-WGA members affected by the strike.

So who are these “media moguls”?
They are the six men who run the multi-media conglomerates, the companies that control almost everything you see on tv or in the movies. These individual CEOs have the power and influence to make a fair deal and end the strike, if they choose.

Leslie Moonves, President, CEO
CBS Corporation
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
www.cbscorporation.com

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO
General Electric (NBC/Universal)
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
www.nbcuni.com

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO
News Corporation (Fox)
1211 Avenue of the Americas
8th floor
New York, NY 10036
www.newscorp.com

Jeffrey L. Bewkes, President, COO
Time Warner Inc. (Warner Brothers)
1 Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019
www.timewarner.com

Robert Iger, President, CEO
Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
corporate.disney.go.com

Sumner Redstone, Chairman
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
www.viacom.com

Why can’t I just buy some pencils and mail them myself?
We’re taking a leaf from the Jericho campaign – where fans contracted with one vendor who could pool all their purchases together. That way, instead of individual bags of nuts, fans sent truckloads of nuts to CBS.

We’ve contracted with a single vendor to buy all the pencils for the same reason. We can deliver all of them in bulk, a truckload at a time, so the impact will be (we hope) greater.

You can mail pencils yourself if you want to, but joining together seems to have a better chance of getting noticed. It’s worked in the past.

But, um, if you do decide to mail pencils yourself, make sure they’re not sharpened. And please be polite. (We know how hard that is. Trust us.)

How come it’s a buck a box?
That price covers purchase and delivery of 12 pencils. (They’ll probably be packed by pallets instead of in individual boxes.)

And did we mention the “sustainably forested” thing?

All right, responsible pencils, I get it. But in the end, what are you trying to accomplish here?

We want the media moguls to start negotiating in good faith. We want the strike to end with a fair deal for both sides.

If we get a fair deal, it helps the actors, the directors, and the below-the-line crew members. Their deals are directly tied to ours.

Send a message to the moguls: It’s time to make a fair deal. We’re all on the same page.