An Open Letter from the Advertising and PR Leaders of Tomorrow:
You had a future, and so should we.
We are tomorrow’s leaders of advertising, PR, and the rest of the marketing industry. We are creators, strategists, dreamers, and doers. We are current students, recent grads, interns, junior creatives, and rising stars.
The biggest threat to our future is climate change. The world’s twenty biggest polluters are fossil fuel companies, with the entire energy sector responsible for creating 75% of carbon emissions. They are blocking necessary and urgently needed climate action.
And our industry is helping them do it.
We’re angry. We’re afraid. And we refuse to sit back and watch it happen.
We, tomorrow’s leaders, call on all agencies, from the holding companies to the independent shops, to stop working with fossil fuel clients. This means oil giants as well as the alphabet soup of trade associations and front groups.
No more marketing climate denial and disinformation.
No more setting up fake front groups.
No more amplifying lies about how action will hurt the economy.
No more greenwashing oil, gas, and coal companies, aiding them in their attempts to dodge pollution safeguards and block meaningful change.
We won’t be able to reduce, reuse, recycle our way out of tomorrow’s catastrophe — because it is already happening today. Over the last few years, we’ve seen the devastating impacts of climate-related disasters, like record-breaking wildfires, droughts, heatwaves, and hurricanes. Bold action is needed, at all levels and segments of society. The time has come for our industry to do its part.
Founders, agency heads, and leadership teams must take a stand and say no more. We know this won’t be easy for everyone. But since when has a winning firm shrank from a challenging brief? We don’t care if you do it for the right reasons, or because you want to be quoted in the NYT or Adweek. Or even because you want a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting us.
We, tomorrow’s leaders, want to starve the fossil fuel industry of the best minds — the minds we hope to learn from — and the best marketing that money can buy, from the best agencies in the world.
We want to avoid having to make the impossible choice between working on a client that is actively and negatively impacting our future, and turning down a chance to break into a competitive industry.
You had a future, and so should we.
We call on everyone else in advertising too: the directors and the CDs and the supes and the mids and the brand new junior creatives. Challenge your leadership. Agitate for change. Advocate for yourselves and the generations to come. Internal pressure may achieve what public pressure can not.
And, if your circumstances don’t allow you to step forward, do what you can. Ask to switch to non-fossil fuel clients. Turn down fossil fuel projects. Sign the Clean Creatives pledge. Raise the consideration within your team, or even just yourself, that you have the option to reject work that is killing you and everyone you know.
Greta Thunberg got it right: “The world is waking up. And change is coming.” This is your chance to lead that change. You had a future. You can make sure we have one, too.
Share the letter:
Signers, 8/31/21:
Kofi Aidoo
Olivia Alexander
Delaun Anderson
Hamest Artin
Heather Baldock
Eryn Bennett
Eryn Bennett
anwar boutayba
Emily Buchanan
jenny chang
Mika Choudhary
Joe Cole
Chris Degenaars
Freya Dumasia
Carl Philip Dybwad
Maria Egunjobi
Ivy Everitt
Claire Fennell
Jess Francis
Olivia G
Keilan Grant
Sheila Chunxi Guo
Maddie Horn
Sophie Howery
Katrina I
Isabel Illig
Dmitriy Ioselevich
Ryan J
Dillon Key
Leah Kidd
Patrick LaBelle
Rachel Langston
Melanie Lysaght
Katrina Madrinian
Lindsey Marshall
Meg Massey
Jacquelyn McGarry
Indira Midha
Vasundhara Mohan
Gabriel Garcia Combs Morris
Victoria Morton
Alise Murawski
Prakruti Nadendla
Kevin Nguyen
Tiffany Oluoch
Zara Palm
Poroma Pant
Komal Pawar
Maggie Peng
Myra Pervez
Tom Pike
Alicia Prieto
Muskaan Razdan
Kieran Redmond
Brian Revels
Sarah Riley
Jorge Cabrera Ruiz
Erin Ryan
A. S.
Ana Santos
Ishita Sharma
Hemanee Sharma
Spencer Shelton
Sarah Sommer
Ian Stoufer
Brooke Strozdas
Autumn Taylor
Nathalie Tigua
Jordan Trevino
Anne Vaeth
Lauren Weiss
Qiyun Woo