Clean Creatives announces the F-List Awards to take down the ad industry’s worst greenwashers
February 8, 2022 – Get ready for the hottest awards show yet. Climate disaster is upon us, and 2021 featured historic heat waves, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, typhoons, drought – and historic greenwashing. This year, PR and advertising agencies went above and beyond, assisting fossil fuel clients in the destruction of our planet for future generations like never before. These great storytellers deserve to be called out – sorry, celebrated – before the ice caps melt.
On March 2, 2022, Clean Creatives will host a virtual awards show to clean up the PR and advertising industry. We’ll highlight the most egregious campaigns on behalf of fossil fuel companies, and name drop the ad industry giants making our climate crisis worse. We’ll revisit old favorites of the climate denial set, as well as up-and-comers in the greenwashing industry.
Hosted by comedian and Climate Town creator Rollie Williams, the event will feature celebrity and climate activist presenters and judges. They’ll announce nominees and winners in ten categories, including “Lifetime Achievement for Achieving Shortened Lifetimes,” “Best Use of Greenwashing,” “Excellence in Science Fiction,” “Excellence in Misleading Metaphors,” “Best Use of Human Shields,” and “Most Embarrassing Appearance at a Congressional Hearing.”
“You really don’t want to win an F-List Award. Our goal is, on the one hand, to point out the real problems presented by working with the fossil fuel industry,” said Duncan Meisel, Director of Clean Creatives. “But equally, we want to give professionals in the ad and PR industry a voice. We have the power to shape public opinion; it’s time for all of us to use those powers for good, and ensure that working with big polluters is a PR disaster. You really don’t want to win an F-List Award.”
The awards are inspired by Clean Creatives’ F-List 2021, which documented 91 ad and PR agencies working with fossil fuel companies. The public report compares holding company pledges for climate action with their work to greenwash their clients’ image and spread climate misinformation. The F-List Awards will go one step further, and highlight the year’s most harmful–like straight up polar-bear-drowning-evil–campaigns.
Author, educator, and activist Bill McKibben said: “Thirty years of disinformation and denial has cost the world dearly; we can't now indulge in a decade or two of playing pretend. We need these clever people using their creativity to help, not to slant.”
Climate justice activist and F-List Awards presenter Tolmeia Gregory adds: “The creative industry is one that has the power to shape what the rest of the world views as the most desirable but it has a dark and tragic side to it, one which is complicit in fueling climate disaster. This is why this show is exciting; it gives us a chance to highlight who’s doing best at aiding devastation and gives them an opportunity to step up and make sure they don’t win the title again next year. What’s desirable about ecocide? Nothing.”
The virtual ceremony will air on March 2, at 12pm ET. You can RSVP for the F-List Awards here, and follow along on social media at #FListAwards.
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Clean Creatives is a collective of strategists, creatives, and industry leaders who believe that fossil fuel clients represent a threat to our shared future. Our goal is to encourage advertisers, marketers, and PR professionals to cut ties with fossil fuels. Recent projects include the F-List 2021, a list of 90 agencies that are working with the fossil fuel industry; a joint statement calling on Edelman to end their work with fossil fuel companies like Exxon; and petition pressuring social media platforms to ban fossil fuel ads. We encourage agencies, creatives, and strategists to sign the Clean Creatives Pledge, which commits signatories to refuse any future contracts with fossil fuel companies, trade associations, or front groups.
Clean Creatives is supported by the Fossil Free Media team, a nonprofit media lab dedicated to supporting the movement to end fossil fuels and address the climate emergency.
Rollie Williams is the host and creator of Climate Town, a collective of climate communicators, creatives and comedians whose goal is to examine climate change in a way that doesn’t make you want to eat a cyanide pill. Other award presenters will include Tolmeia Gregory, a climate justice activist and illustrator; Chi Thukral, Head of Content and Sustainability at Yanko Design, Solitaire Townsend, entrepreneur, sustainability expert, author, and co-founder of the change agency Futerra; and Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr, minister, community activist, and President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus.
For media requests, please contact:
Rachel Taube
Grey Horse
rachel@greyhorse.com