Most Media Agencies Won't Admit They're Pitching Shell

Ask agencies to describe their internal sustainability initiatives and many tout commitments to reduce ad-related carbon emissions. Ask agencies if they're willing to pitch an oil and gas industry titan like Shell, and the room suddenly goes quiet. Shell’s media account is up for review, spurring protests outside agency offices and outcry from climate advocacy groups. The Shell pitch marks an opportunity for agencies to draw a line in the sand on which clients they are willing to forgo in the name of the planet. However, agencies largely declined to speak with Adweek about the Shell pitch, nor did they confirm whether they are pitching the account. In their Adweek Agency of the Year submissions, holding company agencies espoused commitments to reach net zero carbon emissions, continue running sustainability ERGs and develop new tech and tools that can help media planners allocate clients’ investments more sustainably. Meanwhile, Shell’s latest financial filings reveal that it produced 692 million barrels of oil and roughly 1.2 billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions in 2022. That's about 10% less than 2021, and the brand has said it’s aiming for net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Still, it refused calls to set goals for 2030. What Does Sustainability Mean, Anyway? Demystifying Advertising’s Most Misleading Green Claims “Agencies are always looking to optimize revenue and will have to make some tough internal decisions in order to do that,” said Greg Paull, founder and CEO of marketing consultancy R3. “Shell will definitely be one of those challenging discussions." The incumbent, WPP’s GroupM, declined to comment on the review or confirm whether it will defend the business. Shell is one of several large GroupM clients, including General Mills, Kimberly-Clark and Uber, now up for review. No agency that is serious about its commitments to its employees or the planet should be pitching for Shell.Duncan Meisel, executive director, Clean Creatives "We cannot offer comment on the status of current, potential or implied commercial contracts or agreements," a Shell spokesperson told Adweek, adding, "Shell routinely reviews its contracts to ensure our agreements align with our business strategy and current company needs." Agencies draw negative attention Last week, activists from climate action group Extinction Rebellion protested outside the London offices of WPP, Dentsu, Omnicom and IPG, asking the holding companies not to pitch the oil giant. The group plans to hit Publicis and Havas later this week. The main goal of the protests, according to Extinction Rebellion organizer Ian McDermott, is to make agency employees aware of the review. Many of the people that McDermott spoke to didn’t know their employer had any fossil fuel clients—or that they might be pitching another major oil company. "We're trying to let [agency employees] know that they have power," McDermott said. His group aims to encourage people to speak up from within, or "find agencies that won't do this work," he said. More than half (63%) of U.K.-based creatives aged 18 to 30 said working on high-carbon clients would be uncomfortable for them, while 40% indicated they’d refuse to work on high-carbon accounts, according to survey data from Glimpse and YouGov. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Clean Creatives (@clean_creatives) New conflicts Agencies pitching Shell risk alienating existing clients with strong commitments to sustainability, or driving away purpose-driven brands that could become clients. Advocacy group Clean Creatives is asking agencies and brands to pledge to turn down work for fossil fuel companies. In addition to more than 600 agency signatories, brands like Everlane and S’well have taken the pledge not to hire agencies with current fossil fuel accounts, according to Duncan Meisel, executive director at Clean Creatives. "Balancing your responsibility to society and your responsibility to the business is particularly difficult at this time," said Forrester Research principal analyst Jay Pattisall. Before agreeing to pitch Shell, agencies will have to consider the potential implications to their employees, finances and reputation. Agencies, Pattisall said, may show up to the Shell pitch to maintain their industry relationships. "It’s a small world inside advertising, and the trust and the relationships that are built between individual clients and individual agency executives are important relationships. Sometimes they transcend the brand, and they move with the career of the agency executive and the marketing executive." Industry relationships aside, a multimillion-dollar account is likely luring agencies to pitch considering economic pressures that catalyzed rounds of recent industrywide layoffs. Shell spent $240 million on global media in 2022, according to COMvergence estimates. Media agencies’ murky sustainability commitments Adweek contacted holding companies with a global presence to determine which were pitching the Shell business. Agencies not pitching: Dentsu Media: Dentsu Media declined to speak with Adweek for this story, or to confirm whether it is pitching the Shell business. However, sources with knowledge of the review process confirmed it is not pitching the business. But it remains unclear why, since Dentsu’s Merkle maintains a relationship with Shell. Dentsu is vocal about its internal sustainability initiatives. The holding company began relying entirely on renewable electricity in 2020. In an Agency of the Year submission provided to Adweek, holding company representatives said Dentsu will reduce emissions associated with its media supply chain by 46% this year.IPG Mediabrands: IPG Mediabrands confirmed it is not pitching the business. It did not elaborate on why, though Mediabrands agency UM has a relationship with Shell competitor ExxonMobil—a conflict of interest that may explain why IPG is not involved. The holding company also made public commitments to vetting new business opportunities in the oil, gas and utilities sectors. Last September, it issued a set of rules it will abide by when considering these kinds of partnerships.Stagwell: Stagwell’s largest media agency, Assembly, declined to confirm if it was involved in the pitch, although a source familiar with the review told Adweek it is not. Two Stagwell agencies have signed the Clean Creatives pledge.Media.Monks: The agency is not participating in the Shell review, it confirmed. It does not have any existing relationships with oil and gas clients. Agencies with no comment: WPP’s GroupM: GroupM is the incumbent on the account. It declined to confirm to Adweek whether it is defending the business, or to comment on its relationship with Shell. It’s been vocal about its internal sustainability initiatives, though. Last November, GroupM formed what it called a “decarbonization coalition,” after releasing a global framework for measuring ad-based carbon emissions in July 2022. GroupM agencies EssenceMediacom, Mindshare, Wavemaker and mSix&Partners, alongside GroupM clients Audible, AXA, Bayer, Danone, Deutsche Telekom, L’Oréal, Mars, Paramount, Sony and Tesco.In its Agency of the Year submission forms, GroupM agency Wavemaker said that in addition to internal sustainability endeavors, it was committed to “working with clients to stimulate action on climate change and the environment.”Omnicom Media Group: Omnicom Media Group (OMG) declined to confirm whether it is involved in pitching the account, and declined Adweek’s request to comment for this story. In its Agency of the Year submission form, OMG representatives said the group is integrating value chain data into its Omni platform “to support the curation of sustainability marketplaces and unique access to sustainable inventory for OMG clients.” It’s also integrated a carbon calculator that quantifies potential carbon emissions generated from different planning scenarios, allowing planners to make more sustainable investment choices.Publicis Media: Publicis Media declined to confirm whether it is involved in pitching the account, and declined Adweek’s request to comment for this story. In their Agency of the Year submission forms, Publicis Media agencies Spark Foundry, Starcom and Zenith mentioned their commitment to the Paris Agreement and efforts to become carbon neutral by 2030.The agencies also cited an employee resource group called Écologique that “works closely with Groupe’s corporate social responsibility team to provide global membership and deliver a forum for employees of all levels to share, ideate and collaborate on issues like sustainable efforts from scaling companywide office sustainability challenges to case studies and exploration of sustainable solutions and efforts.”Havas Media Group: Havas Media Group declined to confirm whether it is involved in pitching the account, and declined Adweek’s request to comment for this story. In its Agency of the Year submission forms, Havas Media Group acknowledged a holding company-level commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 65% by 2025. HMG was the first agency to join CAN's Climate and Sustainability Manifesto. In December, HMG chief strategy officer Sarah Ivey spoke on greenwashing at an Institute for Advertising Ethics event. Asking agencies to commit The Shell review comes amid increased advocacy from groups like Clean Creatives, which has been urging agencies to cut ties with fossil fuel clients due to their outsized contribution to the climate crisis. The United Nations’ group of climate researchers has specifically called on advertisers to use their efforts to promote consumer behavior that decreases human-induced global warming rather than supporting polluting industries like oil and gas. "No agency that is serious about its commitments to its employees or the planet should be pitching for Shell,” Meisel told Adweek. To Align Sustainability and Growth, Embrace Circular Marketing Meisel pointed to Shell’s recent shareholder vote against bringing its operations in line with the Paris climate goals, a position that its board urged shareholders to take and one that doesn't align with many of the holding companies' ambitious goals to cut carbon emissions. “You can't build a healthy or sustainable agency around a company that is deeply committed to destroying the planet,” he said. “We are asking all agencies, creatives and freelancers worldwide to join the 600 agencies who have already taken our pledge to refuse fossil fuel contracts—including this one." Holding company agencies that have signed Clean Creatives’ pledge include Havas agency Triptk and Stagwell agencies Forsman&Bodenfors and Bruce Mau Design. Havas Lemz, an Amsterdam-based Havas firm, signed a similar Dutch pledge called Fossiel? No Deal! after dropping its fossil fuel clients.