Industry campaign group Clean Creatives has uncovered 1,010 active and recent contracts between fossil fuel organisations and leading advertising agencies in a fresh report.
The contracts took place between 590 agencies and 332 fossil fuel clients. A total of 692 contracts are new, while 318 have continued from last year’s inaugural F-list.
According to Clean Creatives, a total of 551 contracts are newly identified. The majority of the contracts were with oil major and oil and gas producers.
Key findings include that the major holding companies with oil or gas advertising contracts included WPP (79), Omnicom (74), IPG (50) and Publicis (40). The research also identified similar working partnerships at Havas (19), Dentsu (18), Edelman (11) and Stagwell (7).
Ogilvy, McCann Worldgroup and FTI Consulting were the agencies identified as having the most fossil fuel contracts (15, 13 and 13, respectively).
Of all the oil and gas companies investigated, Shell has a whopping 54 contracts across adland; with BP and TotalEnergies not too far behind with 40 and 36 contracts each.
“Many things in the advertising industry have changed since the 1960s, but when it comes to climate change, major holding companies are still stuck in the era of indoor smoking, three-martini lunches, and Don Draper,” said Clean Creatives executive creative director Duncan Meisel.
“Annual investment in clean energy is now double that of fossil fuels, and the creative industry could be a natural ally to climate action, but fossil fuel clients are standing in the way.
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“Like every other outdated practice of the ad industry, it’s only a matter of time before fossil fuel campaigns come to an end. Clean Creative agencies are the future. F-List agencies are the past.”
The data identified that Havas, which recently had its B Corp status revoked, had nine previously unidentified fossil fuel contracts. The holding company came under particular fire after renewing its contract with Shell, with protests taking place outside the agency earlier this year.
However, more newly identified contracts does not imply more agencies are taking on this work, as other research has indicated an overall trend to agencies reducing their work with oil and gas clients.
The research also reveals that independent agencies are dropping oil and gas contracts at a faster rate (10.8% of agencies) compared to holding companies (5.7%).
Clean Creatives research director Nayantara Dutta said the research shows that holding companies “are not making the progress required to divest from fossil fuels”.
“After making net zero pledges and SBTi targets in 2021, they have remained relatively silent,” she added.
“Independent agencies have been twice as likely as holding companies to discontinue fossil fuel contracts, whether this is intentional or they have lost the business.
“Fossil fuel pollution is now killing more people than cigarettes. We need to do more to hold agencies accountable for the sake of our planet and public health.”
The findings come after UN Secretary General António Guterres described criticised the role of PR and advertising firms in climate change earlier this year, describing “mad men fuelling the madness”.
Clean Creatives achieved a milestone on Earth Day 2024, with over 1,000 agencies signing its pledge not to work with oil and gas polluters.
Image credit: Extinction Rebellion
