More than 450 scientists have signed a letter calling on advertising and PR agencies to stop working with fossil fuel companies as clients. 

The letter was organized by a group of scientists including Michael Mann, the inspiration behind Leonardo DiCaprio’s role in the Netflix film "Don't Look Up," in partnership with advocacy group Clean Creatives and the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.

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“As scientists who study and communicate the realities of climate change, we are consistently faced with a major and needless challenge: overcoming advertising and PR efforts by fossil fuel companies that seek to obfuscate or downplay our data and the risks posed by the climate crisis,” the letter reads. “In fact, these misinformation campaigns represent one of the biggest barriers to the government action science shows is necessary to mitigate the ongoing climate emergency.”

Ongoing threat

As a starting point, the letter was sent today to Edelman and holding companies WPP and the Interpublic Group of Cos., as well as some of the recipients’  “largest sustainability-oriented clients,” including Unilever, Amazon, Microsoft, The North Face among others, according to a statement from Clean Creatives. Moving forward, the advocacy group will look to deliver the letter to every company on Clean Creative’s F-list launched in September that singles out 90 ad and PR agencies that work with fossil fuel corporations, Duncan Meisel, Clean Creative’s co-founder and campaign director said.

“We think that agencies that pride themselves on attracting the best talent and smartest clients should be taking this pledge, because fossil fuel clients are an ongoing threat to their reputation and recruitment,” Meisel said. “Maybe there's always someone who takes the industry's money—but it won't be the top agencies, and they will have diminished clout and reach as a result.”

The letter is the latest example of agencies being put under a magnifying glass when it comes to environmental issues. Earlier this month, Edelman announced that it would “part ways with clients” that don’t adhere to its new environmental, social and governance guidelines following an internal review, which was formed after Clean Creatives petitioned the firm to drop its oil and gas clients, particularly Exxon Mobil and Shell. The results were met with skepticism from the advocacy group because no clients were actually removed from the agency’s portfolio.

Greenwashing charges

“Edelman said that they will use the best available science to evaluate whether they will continue to work with fossil fuel clients,” Meisel said in a statement. “Well, here are 450 of the world’s best scientists telling firms like Edelman that work needs to cease immediately. Edelman wants to confuse the issue, but these climate experts are crystal clear: There are no excuses for continuing to greenwash fossil fuel companies.” 

Last year, WPP and IPG both released climate action plans that included commitments to reach net-zero carbon emissions across all of their business by or before 2050, the standard timeline promoted by the Paris Agreement. However, Meisel isn’t convinced by these plans, either.

“The current sustainability commitments by holding groups don't address the biggest part of their climate impact, which is the work they do for their clients,” Meisel said. "WPP's annual carbon footprint is 5.4 megatons of CO2, and the footprint of their fossil fuel clients is 2,287 megatons. So if they generate even a 0.2% increase in sales for their fossil fuel clients, they wipe out the entire impact of their pledge.”

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Wakeup call

Currently, nearly 240 organizations have taken Clean Creative's pledge to decline work with fossil fuel companies or agencies with fossil fuel clients.

In December, Brown University released a peer-reviewed report that examined the influence PR agencies have had on climate policies and politics over the past 30 years. Authors identified hundreds of campaigns that agencies orchestrated for fossil-fuel heavy industries, including oil and gas, utilities, coal, and steel. The report cited agencies like Ogilvy,  Glover Park, Cerrell, Weber Shandwick, and Edelman—the last of which is the only PR firm that has worked for organizations in all the pollution sectors in the study.

“For decades, fossil fuel companies have used greenwashing campaigns to hide from public accountability and attack climate scientists who speak the truth even though they have frequently spread misinformation,” Gary Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Emeritus, at Wesleyan University said in a statement. “PR and advertising agencies that support greenwashing hold major responsibility for letting the climate crisis get this far. I hope this letter will serve as a wakeup call for them to preserve their credibility by ending their complicity.”

Not compelling enough

An agency search consultant contacted for comment about the letter sees parallels between the climate issue and the tobacco industry, which was abandoned my most agencies, but isn't sure a letter will be enough to make a meaningful difference. "We had a client drop an agency from its list recently because they didn't want to be associated with one of its clients," said the consultant, who added that environmental concerns aren't the only filter culturally concerned clients are watching.

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That said, "There are plenty of people out there who turn their back on all sorts of critical challenges like this because they don't really care," said the consultant. "A public company may have a different issue than an independent agency. Right now, in the present business environment, I'm not sure that a letter from scientists would be compelling enough for an agency to walk away from millions in revenue."

The consultant added: "It's a very sad commentary, but public sentiment doesn't hire agencies."