Adland's fossils accused of fuelling fossil fuel ad row

Advertising agencies stand accused of being stuck in the 1960s when it comes to climate change – “the era of indoor smoking, three-martini lunches, and Don Draper” – with a new report exposing 1,010 active and recent contracts between fossil fuel organisations and leading agencies worldwide.

That is according to the latest “F-List” report, carried out by industry campaign group Clean Creatives, which incorporates over 30 new sources of data to reveal contracts between 590 agencies and 332 fossil fuel clients in 70 countries between 2023 and 2024. Of these, 692 are new, and 318 have continued from the F-List 2023. A total of 550 contracts have not been reported before.

To compile this year’s report, Clean Creatives searched agency websites, creative portfolios, LinkedIn’s ad library, PRCA and O’Dwyers agency directories, the OpenSecrets lobbying database, and more.

To ensure accuracy, each contract uncovered has at least three different sources. For the first time, public affairs firms, production agencies, retail marketing agencies, recruitment agencies, animation studios, and OOH agencies have also been included in the total figure.

The findings illustrate the fossil fuel industry’s reliance on a mixture of independent agencies and leading advertising and PR firms, all of whom are identified in the F-List 2024 report as engaging in several contracts with BP, TotalEnergies, Shell, Chevron, and ExxonMobil.

When it comes to which holding companies have the most fossil fuel contracts, WPP (79)and Omnicom (74) lead the way, followed by IPG (50), Publicis (40), Havas (19), Dentsu (18), Edelman (11), Stagwell (7).

The agencies with the most contracts include Ogilvy (15), McCann Worldgroup (15), FTI Consulting (13), Burson (12), IPG Mediabrands (12) and Edelman (11).

Meanwhile, Shell is the fossil fuel company with the most contracts (54), followed by BP (40), TotalEnergies (36), ExxonMobil (33), and Chevron (31). Other oil majors, such as ConocoPhillips (20), Saudi Aramco (19), Petronas, and Equinor (14 each), are also highly represented on the list.

This year’s report also reveals that independent agencies are ending work with fossil fuel contracts at twice the rate of larger groups. Since 2023, 5.7% of holding companies have ended their fossil fuel contracts, compared to 10.8% of independents.

The report follows a call by UN Secretary-General António Guterres for agencies to drop fossil fuel clients. On World Environment Day (June 5) he said: “Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed […]. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – Mad Men fuelling the madness. 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.”

Clean Creatives executive director Duncan Meisel commented: “The UN Secretary-General was right to call fossil fuel agencies ‘Mad Men fueling the madness’.

“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.

“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. Like every other outdated practice of the ad industry, it’s only a matter of time before fossil fuel campaigns come to an end. Clean Creative agencies are the future. F-List agencies are the past.”

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 creatives, dozens of brands, and a growing list of content creators and influencers.

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