Leading Campaign Group Reaction to UNSG Speech on Advertising and PR Industry for World Environment Day
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has just delivered a special address on climate action in New York City, citing, for the first time, the advertising and PR industries as key facilitators for the fossil fuel industry and calling on agencies to drop fossil fuel clients.
The fossil fuel industry relies on the world's most prominent advertising and PR firms to greenwash and spread disinformation to protect its image in return for billions of dollars. These agencies – Dentsu, Edelman, Havas, Interpublic Group, Omnicom, Publicis, WPP and others – knowingly work against scientific consensus.
As a reaction, Duncan Meisel, Executive Director of Clean Creatives – a leading anti-fossil fuel campaign group for the advertising and PR industry – has commented:
“UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for the advertising and PR agencies to cut ties with fossil fuel polluters is historic. Today is a turning point in the advertising and PR industry’s relationship with climate change and fossil fuels - there is no longer any cover for agencies to say that they are doing the right thing when working with polluters. Everyone knows this is wrong, and everyone needs to act.
About Clean Creatives
Clean Creatives is an award-winning campaign group calling for an advertising and PR industry-wide movement where creatives and companies pledge to refuse future work with fossil fuel corporations. To date, over 1,100 agencies and 2,000 individuals worldwide have signed the Clean Creatives pledge, including Allison, with over 1,000 employees across more than 50 markets; GALE, with a global workforce of over 750; and Top 150 UK-ranked Hope&Glory.
Recent agencies to have signed the pledge include AdAge's 2020 and 2022 International Agency of the Year Mother New York and Lucky Generals who have been shortlisted for Campaign's Agency of the Year for the last five years running.
In addition to the campaign's success and support from many industry leaders, Executive
Director Duncan Meisel has been recognized as Adweek's 2023 Sustainability Honoree and secured a spot on PRovoke's Innovator 25 North America list in 2022. The campaign regularly releases reports with bespoke data on fossil fuel contracts globally, including the F-List, which identifies agencies engaged with oil and gas companies.
Clean Creatives Website: cleancreatives.org
Clean Creatives Twitter: @CleanCreatives
Clean Creatives Instagram: @clean_creatives