Our 2024 list of 42 ad and PR agency contracts with fossil fuel companies in South Africa is now available.

Cape Town, October 8 – 42 South African advertising and PR agency contracts with fossil fuels listed in new Clean Creatives SA F-List report

Clean Creatives, the local chapter of the international movement encouraging the advertising and PR industries to cut ties with fossil fuel companies, has today released its second F-list report titled “The SA F-list 2024: A Flood of Greenwashing.”

The report lists 42 agency contracts between agencies in South Africa and fossil fuel companies including Shell, Engen, BP, TotalEnergies, and Sasol. A further 8 agency contracts from around the continent are included. This forms a local picture of the more than 1,010 contracts globally unearthed by the Clean Creatives team.

Intended as a transparency tool for the advertising industry, the report helps brands identify agencies which are helping fossil fuel companies undermine their own sustainability commitments. It’s also useful for climate conscious creatives to make informed decisions about where to work.

Read the full press release here.

The Clean Creatives Pledge

The Clean Creatives pledge is the best way to show you are committed to a future for the creative industry that doesn’t include promoting climate-breaking carbon pollution.

As creatives or leaders of agencies, the pledge says that you will decline future contracts with the fossil fuel industry: any company that derives more than 20% of its income from selling fossil fuels, or selling to fossil fuel companies.

As clients, it says you will decline work with agencies that retain fossil fuel industry clients.

Take the pledge:

“We will decline any future contracts with fossil fuel companies, trade associations, or front groups.”

Case Studies

The report includes the following case studies:

1. MetropolitanRepublic’s Campaign To Squash Negative PR From EACOP Protests

2. APO Group Loses Client Over Ties To The African Energy Chamber

3. Sasol’s Deadly Pollution Masked by Multiple Agencies

4. Caltex To Astron Energy: South Africa’s Next Biggest Greenwasher

More Links

Learn more about climate change and advertising, greenwashing, and lobbying using the links below:

Clean Creatives South Africa Home Page

Frequently Asked Questions

SA F-List 2023

Still have questions? Get in touch here.

The South African campaign of Clean Creatives is a project of Fossil Free South Africa.

Why Reward Bad Behaviour?

In 2023, The Loeries recognized Joe Public for its work for Engen. Also in 2023, Uganda’s Silverback Awards, in partnership with The Loeries, awarded MetropolitanRepublic’s campaign designed to greenwash TotalEnergies’s East African Crude Oil Pipeline project. Through our 2024 Creative Cleanup challenge, we explored how advertising awards shows are still out of step with the reality of the climate crisis and encouraged The Loeries to not allow the fossil fuel industry to tarnish its platform by taking a public position on banning entries from this sector.

The winning artwork, from Cape Peninsula University of Technology first-year design student, Vusumzi Maseti’s, was titled “Why Reward Bad Behaviour?” and asks why a respected institution with so much creative potential like The Loeries would reward work which promotes false perceptions and deceives the general public.

Add your name to our Change.org petition asking The Loerie Awards to ban fossil fuel creative work entries.