70+ young advertising and PR professionals release open letter to industry calling for end to contracts with fossil fuel companies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jamie Henn, jamie@fossilfree.media, 415-601-9337 

Leaders of Tomorrow share message to ad industry executives: “You had a future, and so should we.” 

NEW YORK - Today 70 professionals under 30, junior executives, and students in the advertising and PR industry released an open letter calling for advertising and PR executives to end contracts with fossil fuel companies. 

The letter reads, in part: 

“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.”

The full is available at cleancreatives.org/tomorrow. 

Joe Cole, a strategist working with the organization Clean Creatives led the effort. 

"Any time our industry starts to change for the better, it is through a combination of outside and internal pressure. I believe in the power of young professionals in our industry — the leaders of tomorrow — to hasten the necessary transition away from fossil fuel clients. July 2021 was the hottest month in recorded history; it is no longer acceptable for agency execs to ignore the damage their work with fossil fuel clients is doing to the planet." said Cole. “The people signing this letter truly are the leaders of tomorrow, and if agencies want to remain relevant, and attractive places to work for top young talent, they need to end their work for the worst polluters on the planet.” 

The letter follows a wave of pledges by holding companies and major agencies to address the carbon footprint of their operations and offices. These pledges have so far not included any scrutiny of major clients that are involved in polluting industries, and today’s letter further demonstrates growing skepticism towards the “cups, not clients” approach to sustainability in the ad and PR industry. A recent post from Clean Creatives revealed how the carbon impact of a single contract at IPG-owned agency Carmichael Lynch produced more carbon than the entire global holding company in an entire year. 

“Energy companies represent three quarters of current carbon pollution. Even a single contract with a client like BP, Shell, or Exxon can wipe out the impact of an agency’s sustainability pledge. If agencies are serious about not only protecting the future of their young staff, but recruiting them in the first place they need to begin by transitioning away from fossil fuel work and rejecting new contracts,” said Cole.

The full letter from Leaders of Tomorrow is available at cleancreatives.org/tomorrow. The organizers of the letter are holding it open for new signatories through the end of the week, and will be making future plans with signers to continue pressuring agency leaders to expand their sustainability commitments to include dropping fossil fuel companies. 

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