Where Holding Companies Stand:

WPP: 

Even though WPP acknowledges in their annual report to investors that there is “increased reputational risk” associated with working for fossil fuel clients, that hasn’t stopped them from promoting the world’s worst polluters including BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron. WPP is the marketing network with the most active fossil fuel contracts, many of which date back to the 1990s, with 55 oil and gas clients that we have found between 2022-2023.

In 2022, WPP released a sustainability report which claims that they “will not undertake work that is intended or designed to mislead or deceive.” However, they have a history of legal cases for greenwashing, from their 2019 “Advancing Possibilities” campaign for BP, which was banned in the UK after a legal complaint from ClientEarth, to their work for Shell, which includes ads banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, to their campaign for Chevron, which is the subject of an active Federal Trade Commission complaint for greenwashing.

WPP has developed a Green Claims Guide with training for their employees to “identify and avoid greenwashing” and guidelines to screen incoming oil and gas projects to see whether they are “truthful, fair and accurate”, but doesn’t publicly elaborate on what these standards are, if any third party has evaluated them, and how they are informing new business practices. 

On its website, WPP highlights a case study of EssenceMediaCom working to restore a coral reef in Indonesia with their pet food client Sheba. At the same time, EssenceMediaCom’s longtime client Shell is producing millions of tons of carbon pollution that is bleaching that same coral reef. It’s only a matter of time before more clients refuse to work with holding companies who are selectively sustainable only when it benefits their reputation and bottom line.

Omnicom:

Even though Omnicom has been relatively quiet about its sustainability commitments, its client roster speaks volumes. BBDO has represented ExxonMobil since 2011 and DDB worked for the Canadian Energy Centre to influence public opinion about Alberta’s tar sands. 

In its 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report, Omnicom proudly announces that it’s a founding member of the Ad Net Zero initiative to help the UK advertising industry reach net zero by 2030, but it still works for many high-carbon clients. Otherwise, Omnicom has made the fewest, and generally weakest stances on climate amongst major holding companies, and the results show: we found 39 contracts linking them to oil and gas companies in 2022 and 2023, including ExxonMobil, BP, Repsol, Shell, Chevron, TotalEnergies and Glencore.

Interpublic Group (IPG)

In September 2022, IPG announced that they have partnered with a third party to review prospective new clients to ensure that they are working to reduce their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement and disclose their climate impact. Even though this is a step in the right direction, IPG admits they work “for carbon-intensive clients [which] would not live up to our current standards” and have not declared any intention to evaluate their current client roster which includes Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron.

IPG claims to be the “first advertising holding company to publish its decision not to support or engage in marketing or communications aimed at influencing public policy that seeks to extend the life of fossil fuels.” With that goal, becoming fossil free should be a top priority. 

IPG agencies have been working to measure progress towards their net zero goal, such as McCann Worldgroup’s Green Tracker, a sustainability dashboard to track the agency’s global emissions. They are also training staff on climate-related issues to avoid greenwashing. 

However, although this acknowledges the problem at hand, there is more work to be done. It’s not enough to take responsibility for internal operations — every agency’s footprint includes the clients that they service, and until they take a stand about who they work with, these efforts will never be enough.

Dentsu: 

As a network, Dentsu is quite vocal about sustainability and uses concrete goals to measure their progress. In July 2023, they launched a sustainability accelerator to “help [their] clients reach their sustainability goals with ideas and innovation.” They have set more ambitious goals than other networks, from using 100% renewable electricity to reducing absolute emissions by 90% by 2040 across their value chain, and have been more specific and transparent than others about their metrics and methodology.

However, there is still work to be done as long as they continue to work for oil clients like Petronas, Chevron and other companies that show no interest in the transition that Dentsu is pursuing internally.

Publicis: 

Beyond setting a carbon neutrality goal for 2030, Publicis has been fairly quiet. Their website says that Publicis Groupe “intends to participate in the collective effort” against climate change, but there is no indication as to what they are doing to change how they work with clients. Our research shows that Publicis works for several oil majors including TotalEnergies, Ampol, Enel and Saudi Aramco.

Havas

In 2020, Havas launched a CSR program called Impact+ and in 2021, they published their progress, having reduced absolute GHG emissions by 32% and declaring that they pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.

To their credit, they have been specific with their climate reporting as they work towards these targets, but have yet to track or declare how this affects their work with clients, considering their history of working for BP and Shell. In 2022, they announced a new sustainability practice in Ireland called Havas Genus, which helps businesses meet their sustainability goals.

We hope Havas will take these efforts one step further and start to evaluate their own client portfolio.

Edelman

The world’s largest PR firm is perhaps the most notorious for its fossil fuel clients. Edelman has been entangled in so many controversies that they warrant an entire section on their Wikipedia page. Richard Edelman has been recognized by The Guardian for “making tens of millions of dollars over the years by working with fossil fuel companies [and] peddling climate denial.” 

For example, following Clean Creatives’ #EdelmanDropExxon campaign in November 2021, Richard Edelman published a statement saying “We do not accept client assignments that aim to deny climate change and we do not work with coal producers,” but their policy continues to be an opaque thicket of contradictions. 

Since adopting a new climate policy, Edelman has worked for Shell, TotalEnergies and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar). Interestingly, as of 2023, Edelman has stopped working with Standard Bank, which is financing the East African Crude Oil pipeline, seemingly for climate-related reasons. However, they continue to work with TotalEnergies, the builder of the pipeline, showing that a substantive policy shift remains elusive.