Just weeks ahead of the much discussed Cannes Lions festival, industry activist group Clean Creatives has announced the winners of a very different sort of prize.
Its F-List awards recognise the year’s biggest fossil fuel polluters, and this year’s competition was tough – from McCann and Aramco to Havas and Shell, there has been much discussion of polluter’s links with the advertising industry over the past 12 months.
It is is the second time Clean Creatives has hosted the awards, after a debut ceremony in 2022. The event takes a mocking approach to the most prestigious advertising companies, highlighting a very serious issue: the sector’s contribution to the climate crisis.
This year’s iteration was hosted by award-winning comedian Nicole Conlan, who has written for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Daily Show.
Clean Creatives also ran a post-awards panel, featuring Milk & Honey PR managing director Kath Myers, Hope and Glory PR head of strategy Adam Mack and Futerra chief transformation officer Mathew Sexton.
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This years Clean Creatives F-List prize winners were:
- The Richard W Edelman Lifetime Achievement Award for Achieving Shortened Lifetimes
Ogilvy for its work with Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, Castrol, Petrobras, Masdar, PTT and Adani Group - The Slippery Slope Award for Special Achievement in Hyperbole
Mindstream Media Group for Energy Transfer’s ‘#ItTakesEnergy’ campaign - The ‘How Do You Do Fellow Kids’ Award for Excellence in Digital Cringe
EssenceMediaCom for Shell’s creation of Shell Island on Fortnite - The Bleeding Eardrum Award for Quiet Part Said Loudest
Apple Box Studios for CONSOL Energy’s ‘The Coal Hard Truth’ campaign - The CEO Award for Contaminated Executive Operations
Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO of Havas, for taking on the Shell contract - The Emerald Salad-Spinner Award For Greenest Greenwash
TotalEnergies for its 60-year sponsorship of South Africa National Parks - The DEI Award for Definitely Exploiting Individuals
McCann for Saudi Aramco’s ‘Aramco Loves Women’ campaign - The Follow-The-Misleader Award For Excellence In Influencer Marketing
VML for Shell’s #ShellSnacksChallenge campaign - The Biggest COP-Out
Edelman for The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) - Excellence in Science Fiction
Denstu for Chevron’s ‘Carbon Capture’ campaign
“By now, everyone knows that Big Oil are the bad guys. But they couldn’t do their dirty work without marketing professionals to continue greenwashing their brands and convincing people we still need to rely on fossil fuels, locking us into high emissions for years to come,” said host Nicole Conlan.
“Agencies have a responsibility to stop working with the most evil people on the planet. Just because your business card doesn’t say Exxon on it doesn’t mean you don’t have oil on your hands.”
Clean Creatives founder Duncan Meisel added: “We are giving out the F-List Awards because we wanted a chance to show exactly what makes fossil fuel campaigns so bad for the communications and creativity industry.”
“Whether it’s running into greenwashing complaints, producing some of the most cringe youth content ever, or simply betraying your employees, these winning campaigns show how fossil fuel campaigns are bad for your image, and your agency.”
With the evening hosted by Latte recruitment founder Dean Connely, among those presenting the awards were dry-humoured TikTok sensation and adland realist Rob Mayhew, climate activist and author Tori Tsui, founder of Black Girl environmentalist Wawa Gatheru, American environmentalist and Third Act Founder Bill McKibben.
The awards come just weeks after Clean Creatives announced that it had signed 1,000 agencies to its pledge not to work with fossil fuels.