Instead, according to Flanagan, EQAT launched a campaign of escalating protests — some 125 in all, including sit-ins in the bank lobby where members, including Flanagan, were arrested, and the high-profile actions at PNC's annual shareholder meetings — and grew its network from a Philadelphia living room to having allies in some 31 states. The protests drew negative headlines for the bank in the cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia where PNC advertises heavily for new depositors — thus achieving the one thing that cannot be tolerated in a corporate oligarchy: tarnishing the brand. It took five long years, but bank executives — just like Dorothy clicking her heels three times in The Wizard of Oz — decided they'd had the power to restrict loans for mountaintop removal all along.