The push for ad agencies to leave large oil customers

Here a completely true statement: between 2015 and 2019, oil and gas companies doubled their capital spending on renewable capital and carbon capture technologies. Here’s the chaser: That’s the point less than 1 percent According to Big Oil’s overall capital investment, according to the International Energy Agency; 99 percent still went to oil and gas.

The additional context paints a very different picture of fossil fuel companies ’investments in green energy. Now, as ordered by state and local courts continuous suits Against Big Oil deceiving the public on its role in climate change, a new coalition is emerging between the PR and advertising agencies responsible for corporate messaging.

Duncan Meisel is the director of Clean Creatives, a coalition of the advertising, PR and marketing industries. refuse contracts with fossil fuel companies. Meisel says the idea for the commitment came after years of working in communications with nonprofits with the environment, where progressive messaging campaigns often address the discussion points of the oil industry in well-funded PR companies.

“People in the creative industry have the ability to talk to their leadership, the organizations they work with, and they can stop promoting companies that are responsible for climate change,” Meisel says. To date, the commitment has been signed by more than 300 individual employees and 120 agencies.

“Shell will come to us with a million-dollar contract and we’ll get away with it,” says Roger Ramirez, head of growth for New York’s Mustache advertising agency, who signed the pledge this year. It’s not an easy decision, Ramirez says, “the reality is that business is not about ignoring potential big commitments”.

While Ramirez and others in the agency had long supported social causes, the agency’s main company, Cognizant, had reservations. About 60 people is a medium-sized agency run by a major multinational company that works with fossil fuel companies Mustache. In the past, Mustache also took on some of these contracts, making the commitment seem even more violent.

“It was an obstacle for us for sure, and it required a lot of conversation,” Ramirez says, describing the months-long talks between Mustache and the people of Cognizant.

The Mustache team eventually convinced its owners to link the Clean Creative commitment to diversity and pre-existing commitments to racial justice, arguing that racial justice should include environmental justice and sustainability.

Adam Lerman, associate creative director at Mustache and president of sustainability, says most advertising agencies are structured in the same way, meaning sustainability commitments, whether small or large, are convincingly dominant. Lerman recommends starting a conversation by emphasizing why leadership goals match, even if he doesn’t realize it.

“If you notice that common interest and provide legitimate and verifiable evidence that says, ‘Hey, this thing we care about is related to this other thing, and we’re hypocrites if we do A and B at the same time.’ That could be a way.”

Since 2017, several state and local governments have been embroiled in ongoing legal battles with oil and gas companies, and have complained that they have misled citizens about the role of fossil fuels in climate change. While no advertising agency was named as the defendant, he complained specify 15 campaigns it is misleading, that is, the agencies that created the campaigns can be dragged into the case.

In August, the American Association of Advertising Agencies given guidance Agencies to prevent green cleaning by emphasizing the Federal Trade Commission’s environmental protection claims rule to have “reliable evidence”. Alison Pepper, the group’s executive vice president of government relations, said there is a “gap” between the FTC’s claims and “reliable evidence” rules about consumer expectations. He himself has asked the FTC to further clarify the rules on environmental claims to reduce green cleaning.