Fossil free advocacy group Clean Creatives (CC) will be attending the Cannes Lions creative festival later this month with the mission of convincing attendees to reject client work that promotes the fossil fuel industry.  

The group will make its case on panel sessions and in the streets (particularly along the Croisette) where it will solicit pledges from agencies to shun work related to promoting fossil fuels.   

It is also conducting an “Unpitch Fossil Fuels” hack-a-thon on June 23 at the festival where attendees will brainstorm ideas for a campaign “that pressures the creative industry to stop rewarding fossil fuel-linked agencies with sustainability recognition.” 

That would include convincing the Lions organization to stop awarding work that promotes fossil fuels. 

It positions the 2025 DM9 AI scandal at Cannes as a precedent supporting its reasoning. “If Cannes can revoke awards when agency behavior conflicts with the integrity of the work, surely the same principle should apply to climate awards and fossil fuel representation,” the group states. See more on the hack-a-thon here. 

There is also a session on June 25 featuring CC executive director Laura Ranzato that is billed as a creative lab for what comes next in sustainability communications.  

The group is also planning a series of man-on-the-street interviews by Clean Creatives' Josh Klasco, exploring how the fossil fuel industry remains deeply enmeshed with the communications sector, and what it means for industry professionals. 

“Fossil fuel supply chain instability dominates global news and impacts every sector across the board,” stated Ranzato. “Our current pledge numbers show thousands in the communications sector care deeply about the impacts of their work – we’re looking to platform this further and ask attendees to draw a line in the sand on relationships with the most polluting industry on earth.”