Young Marketers Want Agencies That Align With Their Values—Especially on Climate Issues

For as long as she can remember, Mikayla Madigan has thought deeply about her impact on the environment. But it wasn’t until mid-2020, when assigned to work on a sustainability-focused Garnier campaign, that she started to consider how that passion could align with her career goals as an art director at a small ad agency. Over the next year, Madigan moved on from that first agency job—and finding an agency that aligned with her values became a top priority. “When it came to my interviews, I was looking at the work that they were doing—not just seeing if it won awards, or if the brands were really cool, but did they do any work that meant something?” Madigan said. “Did they do any social impact work or any work that was related to climate change?” Madigan, now an art director at digital marketing company Social Chain, is one of many young people in the ad world who are demanding something from prospective employers that their predecessors didn’t. They want to see evidence that agencies are serious about the issues that matter to them—especially when it comes to the earth. A 2021 Pew Research report found that 76% of Gen Z consider climate change one of their biggest societal concerns, and 37% consider it their number one concern. Commercial Production Finally Has a Path to Embracing Sustainability Clean Creatives, an organization that exposes the environmentally destructive transactions that happen behind closed doors at agencies, believes the industry can only address the climate crisis by being honest about who is contributing to it. Last month, the organization published a report listing 90 ad and PR agencies that it claims have held contracts with fossil fuel companies since 2008. The report's “F-List” include shops owned by WPP, Interpublic, Dentsu and Omnicom, as well as independent agencies. https://twitter.com/cleancreatives/status/1440331189840060419?s=20 “We don’t want to make this a great shaming exercise,” said director Duncan Meisel, noting that the added transparency will help both brands and incoming talent make fully-informed decisions before deciding where and with whom to work. Holding agencies responsible for their clients Historically, agencies have been much more protected from consumers flack than brands, as the general public has been largely unaware of their contribution to the bottom line of fossil fuel companies. In an attempt to address climate change, the largest agencies are establishing sustainability policies for their offices but retaining accounts with the clients whose operations run counter to those convictions. “A lot of agencies want to say there’s a difference between them as a company and their clients,” said Ana Kannan, CEO of Toward, a luxury clothing retailer that vets brands for greenwashing. “They make changes within the direct operations of the agency, but then won’t take into account the impact of the brands they work with.” According to Kannan, viewing agency and client initiatives as a joint effort would be damaging to business. Take WPP, for example. According to the report, 19 of its agencies worldwide have worked with over a dozen fossil fuel companies in recent years. https://twitter.com/WPP/status/1385150895650967559?s=20 As more climate activists look down the production line to hold each player accountable, the agencies that help big oil advertise could face consequences for refusing to acknowledge their impact. “As Gen Z enters the professional world, they will be choosing their employers not just by the job offer but what their values uphold as a company,” said Roberto Salas, co-founder and CEO of creative agency Young Hero. Salas stressed that younger generations of employees are more comfortable leaving positions at agencies that are tied to the oil industry. As brands continue to reflect the consumer demand for sustainability, he believes it is “only a matter of time” before they boycott agencies that are tied to environmentally destructive clients. “It is important as an agency to routinely re-evaluate your stance on different topics, constantly challenge yourself by bringing in diverse points of view, and be really clear on what you stand for,” said Salas. “Decisions after that are easy.” How far should we trace back impact? While concerns of greenwashing from corporations are nothing new, 4A’s evp of government relations Allison Pepper has noticed that consumers today are viewing the concept a bit differently. Instead of fighting back on false claims that products contain more recycled material than they actually do, activists are calling out companies for misleading, overarching claims about their corporation’s environmental footprint. “Greenwashing is no longer about a specific product,” she said. “It’s about companies’ environmental and sustainable profiles, and how that relates to what they’re saying and doing.” Clean Creatives’ goal is for creatives to take accountability for every product and service they touch. But in a world that is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, 4A’s Pepper warns against letting this school of thought become “a slippery slope.” “It’s a weird pressure point because it assumes that so much that we use from oil isn’t in everything,” she said. “As an agency, if you decide to go down that route, you need to think about what else you might be asked to cut ties with down the road.” In an age where every agency has been pressured to solidify its own outward-facing brand purpose, incoming talent expects that they practice what they preach, which may force agency leaders to consider how their actions outside of work align with their corporate values. In a business that is completely driven by client demand, supporters of Clean Creatives believe that judging agencies by the accounts they hold is a reasonable first step. “The types of clients are a reflection of an agency's values,” said Jennifer Chang, a senior strategist at JOAN Creative who signed a Clean Creatives pledge asking agencies to refuse work from fossil fuel companies. “They have to be, or you're admitting that all the work you make for them is just lip service.” The Campaign Blocking Brands’ Greenwashing Ads During Global Climate Summit COP26