As experts in sustainability and advocates dedicated to climate justice, many of us are frequently asked by public relations and advertising agencies to participate in sustainability campaigns. Yet many of these same agencies are simultaneously working with fossil-fuel corporations to spread climate denial and misinformation.

Edelman is the world’s largest PR firm. They often invite people like us to join sustainability campaigns on behalf of their clients. However, even as they work with brands that are aligned with our values, they also work extensively with companies like ExxonMobil¹, the world’s largest public oil company, along with Shell, and organizations that deny climate change and promote the agenda of the world’s worst polluters.²

In fact, Edelman does more work for fossil fuel interests than any PR agency on earth.³ Advertising for fossil fuel companies obstructs urgently needed government action on climate change and impedes climate justice solutions. “Greenwashing” is too mild a term: Edelman is in fact actively contributing to fossil-fuel emissions through its marketing activities.⁴

Our planet is at a tipping point. There is no grey area here. Promoting ExxonMobil’s business model in 2021 means enabling untold human suffering and ecosystem destruction. Representing fossil-fuel clients makes Edelman’s corporate commitment⁵ to operating within the goals of the Paris Agreement fraudulent.

Several private conversations with Edelman to ask them to drop these clients have led nowhere. Given the stakes, we are now going public with our demand to Edelman: drop ExxonMobil and all other fossil-fuel clients. Ending advertising and PR for fossil-fuel companies is a crucial step toward climate justice.

If you are a thought leader, advocate, activist, creative, influencer, or social media manager, we encourage you to join us in using your platform to pressure the advertising and PR industry⁶ to drop fossil fuel clients. Our voices and our platforms have power, and it is our responsibility to use it.

Citations:

1: Gizmodo

2: Buzzfeed

3: Clean Creatives

4: ipa.co.uk

5: Edelman

6: Clean Creatives