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, 9/14/21:
Shazia Abji
Pradite Adi
Jason Aguiar
Kofi Aidoo
Aroe Ajoeni
nadia akhtar
Olivia Alexander
Katherine Alexander
Delaun Anderson
Theis Anderson
Russell Archer
Hamest Artin
Rickie Ashman
Ainara Atorrasagasti
Jenevieve Ayuste
Heather Baldock
Catarina Barcala
Eryn Bennett
anwar boutayba
Bailey Boyle
Jared Briere
Natalie Brite
Forrest Brown
Jessae Brown
Kemba Brown-Clarke
Oscar Brunzell
Emily Buchanan
Jillian Buckley
Lily Bui
Cristiana Candido
Lucas Casas
Lizzeth Castro
Em Chan
jenny chang
Brendan Chareoncharutkun
Brian Chau
Michael Chen
Mika Choudhary
Tiffany Chu
Kristen Cleghorn
Naomi Szczesiul Coale
Joe Cole
Maureen Condon
Laura costello
Taryn Cowart
Poppy Cumming-Spain
Simran Dadlani
Dominique Dajer
Ads Dechaud
Chris Degenaars
Shenina Delfin
Ruben Delgado
Priya Deshmukh
Robert Donald
Sean Donnelly
Rosemary Dorsett
Freya Dumasia
Carl Philip Dybwad
Megan Eden
Maria Egunjobi
Amanda Eldridge
Maggie Elias
Lizzie Elward
Theodore Erasmus
Alexis Esparza
Ivy Everitt
Jonathan Falker
Marielle Farmer
Claire Fennell
Daniel Fernandez
Jess Francis
Linda Fredell
Becca Fuhrman
Olivia G
Max G
Christin Gabriel
Julian Gamboa
Mariela Gandara
Will Gardner
Holly Georgious
Trevor Goddard
Trevor Gowan
Keilan Grant
Eve Grissinger
Teresa Guillien
Sheila Chunxi Guo
Aayush Gupta
Karin Hadadan
Michael Hanbury-Williams
Samantha Hart
Justin Hartney
Cassandra Hendriks
Brittany Hoedemaker
Bradley Hopper
Maddie Horn
Sophie Howery
Katrina I
Kristin Ides
Isabel Illig
Dmitriy Ioselevich
Ryan J
Manunya Jaimongkol
Ricki-Lee Jewell
Gabe John
Abbey Johnson
Joey Johnson
Mickey Jones
Mick Jongeling
Sijo Joy
Haley Justus
M K
Tiffany Kang
Gunjan Kaul
Regan Keller
Dillon Key
Nisha Khan
Erika Khanna
Chirag Khushalani
Leah Kidd
Arielle Kimbarovsky
Natalie Kozma
Casey Kuktelionis
K L
Patrick LaBelle
Barbie Lam
Rachel Langston
Carrie Ann Latimer
Ayana Latimore
Philip Le Brun
Toni León
Marisa Lepore
Adam Lerman
Dakota Lowe
Evan Luecke
Melanie Lysaght
Frank Macaluso
Erika Mackley
Maithili Madhusudanan
Mikayla Madigan
Katrina Madrinian
muhamed nuur mahamud
Rosie Maharjan
Mira Malhotra
Lindsey Marshall
Aeriel Martens
Meg Massey
Jacquelyn McGarry
Jill McLaughlin
Ayla McLelland
Veronika McQuade
Christian Meissner
Indira Midha
Jaime Misky
Vasundhara Mohan
Meg Monahan
Gabriel Garcia Combs Morris
Tarahgee Morris
Victoria Morton
Madison Mucha
Maura Munaf
Alise Murawski
Prakruti Nadendla
Avery Namatevs
Sam Narr
Nicole Natal
Kevin Nguyen
Taylor Nguyen
Shinyoung Hailey Noh
Hunter Normand
Sarah O'Connell
Xavi Ocana
Nancy Oganezov
Tiffany Oluoch
Kevin Orr
Zara Palm
Poroma Pant
Komal Pawar
Maggie Peng
Stephanie Perez
Janine Perry
Myra Pervez
Tom Pike
Liston Pitman
Liston Pitman
Adrian Plaisance
Rachael Powell
Kea Powell
Giulio Pozzuoli
Alicia Prieto
Katy Pryer
Umang Puri
Alexandra Rapp
Muskaan Razdan
Kieran Redmond
Lexi Reihanian
Brian Revels
Sarah Riley
Sarah Finnie Robinson
Riona S Roy
Jorge Cabrera Ruiz
Lien De ruyck
Erin Ryan
Chrissy Saenz
Randilyn Saenz
Sonali Sampat
Amitie Sandoval
Camille Santiago
Ana Santos
Jenny Sapodin
Ishita Sharma
Hemanee Sharma
Sneha Sharma
Spencer Shelton
Aditi Singh
H Singh
Kasha Sequoia Slavner
Aditi Sobti
Sarah Sommer
Mya Stanislas
Blake Stephens
Megan Steyn
Brooke Strozdas
Olga Sukhopar
Rick Swidinsky
Tom Tapper
Autumn Taylor
Pei Chi Teh
Nathalie Tigua
Elizabeth Tran
Jennifer Tran
Jordan Trevino
Diana Turchi
Diana Turchi
Dan U
Elizabeth Ustinov
Anne Vaeth
Erica van Heck
Lydia van den Dries
Jon Iñaki Echevarría Vanneste
Susana Vidal
Andres Villa
Jackie Virgilio
Meghan Vondriska
Jennie Wang
Megan Watt
Ali Webb
Simone Weilborg
Rian Weinstein
Lauren Weiss
Erika Wey-Acuna
Jessica Williams
Rick Williams
Stephanie Williams
Jessica Williams
Nolan Wolf
Qiyun Woo
Maxwell Woolf
Carolina Zepeda
Maureen Zeufack