Ad agencies pressure colleagues to drop fossil fuel companies

Advertising and public relations (PR) agencies running campaigns for fossil fuel companies are being taken to task by their colleagues for aiding climate catastrophe by greenwashing the environmental harm caused by their client’s activities.

For the first time, a report listing 41 advertising and PR agencies with current and historic contracts with coal, oil, and gas companies has been released by the SA chapter of a global coalition of media agencies called Clean Creatives.

Along with the publication on Wednesday of what they call the SA F-List, Clean Creatives SA is petitioning the country’s premier advertising awards, the Loerie Awards to ban entries for work undertaken for fossil fuel companies.

The SA F-List is contained in a report, “Fueling A Perfect Storm”, in which Clean Creatives SA says 35 agencies and more than 140 people working in the advertising and PR industry have pledged to decline to work with fossil fuel companies or agencies that retain fossil fuel clients. Globally, more than 700 agencies have signed the pledge.

Researched and compiled by Clean Creatives SA country director Stephen Horn, the report says the burning of coal, oil, and gas accounts for more than 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Drawing on established science, the report adds that the resulting global heating is leading to extreme weather events. An increasingly unstable climate threatens our food security, health and the ecosystems we depend on for survival.

“Despite knowing their product is endangering all of humanity, fossil fuel companies have spent decades deceiving the public by sowing doubt about climate change and lobbying to delay climate regulation,” says the report.

“Advertising and public relations companies are key agents in this massive and sophisticated ongoing campaign of public deception.”

One of the campaigns singled out is Total’s rebrand to TotalEnergies in 2021, featuring Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi in a campaign by Edelman PR agency highlighting TotalEnergies’ solar-powered service stations.

Horn notes TotalEnergies’ allocation of 88% of its capital expenditure to fossil fuels, as well as its East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), which will be the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline.

The Eacop, which runs through the Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, has been condemned for human rights violations. While Edelman rejected campaigning for Eacop, it was still happy to work with TotalEnergies, says the report.

Edelman SA could not be reached for comment.

Though his sources are not cited, Horn says SA’s reliance on coal makes it one of the top 15 greenhouse gas emitters globally, and the world’s most carbon-intensive economy. Yet, he states, it is particularly vulnerable to climate change, warming at twice the global average.

Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies “use misleading advertising and PR strategies to delay a just transition away from polluting fossil fuels towards clean solutions such as wind, solar and energy storage”.

Horn says advertising agencies’ justification that they are helping their fossil fuel clients to navigate the just transition by communicating their commitment to clean energy is indefensible when in reality their clients are directing just 1% of their capital expenditure to renewables, and the rest to fossil fuel exploration and extraction.

Advertising agencies “have a unique opportunity to educate people about climate change and influence sustainable behaviour”, the report says.

“From the UN’s IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports to academic research, scientists now widely recognise the crucial role advertising, the media and culture must play in helping humanity take action to avoid the worst consequences of a warming planet.”

But Sandra Gordon, veteran advertising industry expert and founder and MD of Stone Soup Public Relations, said there is “not much clean” in general about what the advertising industry does.

“Advertising is a cornerstone of capitalism, a driving force that encourages consumers to purchase, invest in, enjoy and benefit from, a multitude of products that are quite frankly harmful to the planet and themselves,” said Gordon.

“That said, they [Clean Creatives] have the right to express their views and climate change is a hot topic. I suspect they are punching above their weight and note the absence of powerful voices within their ranks.”

Katlego Mahura, MD at Idea Engineers, one of the agencies named on the F-List for work with Sasol, said their engagement with the fossil fuel sector are related to programmes offering bursaries for underprivileged youth and encouraging schoolchildren to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) careers.

“By engaging constructively with this sector, we can contribute to positive change and progress towards a more sustainable future,” said Mahura.

The Loerie Award organisers and numerous advertising and PR agencies on the F-List who were contacted did not respond.

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