PR giants like Edelman, McCann, Ogilvy, and Publicis Groupe are under the microscope during New York Climate Week after the Clean Creatives campaign launched its 2023 F-List, an inventory of 500 fossil fuel contracts with 294 advertising and public relations agencies in 2022 and 2023.
“Scientists and global leaders have condemned the work carried out by advertising and PR agencies to spread fossil fuel disinformation, and their warnings demand a response,” Clean Creatives Executive Director Duncan Meisel said in a release this morning. “This is a turning point for the industry—communications agencies who work for oil and gas clients are knowingly accelerating the global climate emergency, and their legal risks will accelerate, too.”
After the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest assessment report stressed the role of media in shaping the public discourse on climate change, the industry “cannot continue to be this far out of step with scientific and political reality and expect to avoid backlash,” Meisel added.
The 2023 F-List “documents the agencies that choose to continue working with fossil fuel companies despite the scientific consensus that this work is destroying the planet,” Clean Creatives writes. “It’s a snapshot of an industry in transition—and the laggards allowing themselves to fall behind on the most important issue of our time.”
Read more here, including an account of the successful Edelman campaign that ultimately positioned fossil fuel CEO Sultan al Jaber to chair this year's UN climate negotiations in Dubai.