UN Secretary-General António Guterres has described advertising and PR industries as key facilitators for the fossil fuel industry.
ADVERTISEMENTThere are over a thousand contracts between fossil fuel companies and leading advertising and PR firms worldwide, a new report has found.
Campaign group Clean Creatives releases an annual F-List which highlights the dependence of the carbon-based energy sector on marketing agencies.
This list shows that Europe had 241 contracts, the second-highest number out of the global regions studied.
It comes after UN Secretary-General António Guterres described advertising and PR industries as key facilitators for the fossil fuel industry in June this year. He called on agencies to drop these clients and urged governments to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies.
UK has the highest number of PR contracts with fossil fuel companies in Europe
Clean Creatives’ F-List report reveals 1,010 contracts between 590 agencies and 332 fossil fuel clients in 70 countries between 2023 and 2024.
Of these contracts, 692 are new, and 318 have continued from the last year’s F-List. This year’s edition also includes 551 contracts which haven’t been reported before.
The campaign group’s methodology includes searching agency websites, creative portfolios, LinkedIn’s ad library, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and O’Dwyers agency directories, and the OpenSecrets lobbying database.
Each contract they uncover is based on three different sources to ensure accuracy.
This year’s report includes public affairs firms, production agencies, retail marketing agencies, recruitment agencies, animation studios and out-of-home (OOH) agencies - which produce advertising like billboards and bus shelter posters - in the total figure for the first time.
In Europe, the report reveals contracts from holding companies such as Dentsu, Edelman, Omnicom and Publicis for clients like BP, Centrica (British Gas), Cepsa, Eni, Repsol, ScottishPower, Shell and TotalEnergies.
Within Europe, the UK had the most contracts at 96, France had 23, Spain 16 and Italy 9.
World leaders call on PR firms to drop fossil fuel companies as clients
The findings illustrate the fossil fuel industry’s reliance on a mixture of independent agencies and leading advertising and PR firms.
During a speech on World Environment Day on 5 June this year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres cited the advertising and PR industries as key facilitators of the fossil fuel industry for the first time.
"Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed [...]. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies,” Guterres said.
“I call on these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel clients, from today, and set out plans to drop your existing ones.”
ADVERTISEMENTClean Creatives underlines that a larger number of agencies on the 2024 F-List does not indicate a trend of more agencies taking on fossil fuel work, however.
Business media brand Campaign’s 2024 School Report - which provides individual analysis of 99 of the UK industry's top agencies - found that 15.2 per cent of agencies are “reducing work with fossil fuel clients” and 73.9 per cent don’t currently work with fossil fuel clients.
Clean Creatives’ research found that the rate at which independent agencies are ending work with fossil fuel has sped up this year.
Since last year, 5.7 per cent of holding companies have ended their fossil fuel contracts, compared to 10.8 per cent of independents.
ADVERTISEMENTThe group is now urging other companies to follow suit.
“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,” says Duncan Meisel, Executive Director at Clean Creatives.
“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.”
To date, over 1,200 agencies worldwide have signed the Clean Creatives pledge to refuse contracts from fossil fuel organisations, along with over 2,300 individual creatives, dozens of brands, and a growing list of content creators and influencers.
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