F-List Reveals 1,000+ Ad/PR Contracts With Fossil Fuel Clients

 

Industry Group Clean Creatives is out with its 2024 “F-List" report that reveals 1,010 active contracts between fossil fuel organizations and leading advertising and PR firms worldwide.  

The report finds that North America has the highest number of contracts, with 261 split between major holding companies such as Dentsu, Edelman, Havas, Interpublic Group, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP for clients such as American Petroleum Institute (API), American Chemistry Council, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, Suncor (Petro-Canada), TC Energy, Valero, and more.  

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This year's report 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 1,010 contracts, 692 are new, and 318 have continued from the F-List 2023.   

Multiple sources were used to compile the list and to ensure accuracy, each contract uncovered has at least three different sources.   

The group said that 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. This is the fourth year that Clean Creatives has published the F-List.   

Findings from the F-List 2024 include: 

  • Holding company fossil fuel contracts: WPP (79), Omnicom (74), IPG (50), Publicis (40), Havas (19), Dentsu (18), Edelman (11), Stagwell (7)

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

  • 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 

  • Global and regional contracts: 91 contracts have a global scope. Regionally, contracts were placed in North America (261), Europe and the UK (239 – 96 of which are UK only), APAC (219), MENAT (83), Latin America (67), and Africa (50)

  • Comparison to F-List 2023: 104 contracts uncovered in the F-List 2023 report have been discontinued

Notable contracts uncovered for the first time in the F-List 2024 report: 

  • Edelman has worked for Chevron (2022-2023), Sasol (2022-2024) and ConocoPhillips (2023-2024)

  • Havas agencies, who recently had their B Corp status revoked, have 9 previously unreported fossil fuel contracts with Promigas, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Repsol, RWE and Opet

  • Ogilvy Africa, Edelman South Africa and fireworks Advertising were the key agencies in TotalEnergies’ campaign to build the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project from Uganda to South Africa

  • 34 new agencies are working on Shell’s globally controversial advertising contracts, including 7 new contracts among major holding companies.  

Key Trends Identified by Clean Creatives’ Research: 

  1. More data sources reveal more contracts: With a greater variety of data sources, the number of contracts has increased to show a vast number of advertising and PR agencies working against scientific consensus and calls from world leaders to refuse work from the highest polluting industry. 

  1. Independent agencies are ending work with fossil fuel contracts at a quicker rate: Since last year, 5.7% of holding companies have ended their fossil fuel contracts, compared to 10.8% of independents.  

  1. A consistent ratio of holding companies to independent agencies are on the F-List: 19% of agencies on the 2023 F-List and 18% of agencies on the 2024 F-List are part of the top 8 holding companies: Dentsu, DJE Holdings (Edelman), Havas, Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom, Publicis, Stagwell and WPP. 

  1. Regional perspectives: The 2024 report includes deeper insights into fossil fuel contracts in Asia and Latin America, as well as significant increases in Turkey, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.  

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

Meisel added that “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.”  

“Fossil fuel pollution is now killing more people than cigarettes,” said Clean Creatives research director Nayantara Dutta. “We need to do more to hold agencies accountable for the sake of our planet and public health.”   

Clean Creatives has also launched a new database of oil and gas companies with over 50% revenue or generation from fossil fuels. The group said this database is the first global list of fossil fuel clients to help agencies and creatives understand whom they should not be working for.   

To date, over 1,200 agencies worldwide have signed the Clean Creatives pledge to refuse contracts from fossil fuel organizations along with over 2,300 creatives, dozens of brands, and a growing list of content creators and influencers.  

The full F-List 2024 report can be viewed here.  

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