Can Cannes Lions 2022 Deliver on Climate?

The last time the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity took place in person, nobody had heard of Covid-19 nor read a brief for a “We’re in This Together” spot. The United Nations was gearing up to deliver a three-part report detailing how burning fossil fuels was responsible for global warming that will devastate communities around the world—and outlining the drastic changes required to mitigate it. And Russia hadn’t yet invaded Ukraine in a war that is funded by its oil and gas business. Needless to say, a lot has happened in the past three years. And it’s clearer than ever that the advertising and marketing industry has a role to play in combating climate change—just as it has played a role in sharing pandemic-related information with people around the world. While sustainability is one of the six pillars of the 2022 Cannes Lions festival, just 12 of its more than 200 official events and sessions are part of that track at the time of publication. Still, several groups are bringing their own agendas to the conference with plans to steer the conversation toward the importance of climate action. A hype house for climate content Clean Creatives, a late-2020 campaign from Fossil Free Media, has recruited climate-focused content creators to bring its message to the Côte d’Azur, turning the entire festival into a collaborative project like the Los Angeles-based Hype House. “We're inviting a group of five young people from the advertising and marketing industry who are excited to make content that goes on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter,” Duncan Meisel, director of Clean Creatives, told Adweek. From there, it’s pretty open-ended, according to Meisel. The creators are simply planning to walk around, talk to people, and make “content that hopefully frames up the challenge that the ad industry is facing with the issue of fossil fuel advertising.” The group’s goal is to convince advertising and public relations agencies to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry because of its impact on the climate. More than 300 agencies and 700 individuals have signed the Clean Creatives Pledge since it began. Greenwash Watch Another group pushing for climate action in the advertising and marketing industry, Creatives for Climate, is taking a somewhat similar approach. Working with production agency Mr.Frank, the global network of climate-conscious creatives is planning to film beachside interviews with industry professionals analyzing greenwashing—when advertising misrepresents a brand’s climate impact to appeal to sustainability-conscious consumers—in ads. Inspired by the hit ’90s series Baywatch, the resulting Greenwash Watch short video will be released during the festival. It will also serve as a promo for Creatives for Climate’s course of the same name launching June 26. “We hope to start a conversation about greenwashing by demonstrating the different opinions that exist within the industry about what ‘sustainability’ really means,” Zoë Red, strategic partnership director for Creatives for Climate, told Adweek. Creatives for Climate initiator Lucy von Sturmer hopes the film will help agencies have a more robust conversation when they receive a “green brief” and help brands go deeper when they discuss “purpose.” “We want to see an honest discussion about the skill gap that exists for creatives,” von Sturmer said. “Many don’t have the skills to effectively communicate sustainability or, equally, to recognize and push back on greenwashing. With no regulation or widely accepted definition of terms such as ‘sustainability,’ ‘good’ or ‘impact,’ radical re-skilling is needed." The marketing industry’s ‘brain print’ Industry activists and professionals also expressed concern that the climate conversation at Cannes wouldn’t go deep enough. They worry that rather than acknowledging the unique role advertising and marketing can play in catalyzing behavioral change to promote a more sustainable and climate-friendly society, economy and culture, the focus will be exclusively on past achievements and the carbon footprint of agency operations. “My big fear is that we talk about the sustainability footprint of the industry and that everyone's very enthusiastic about recycling their rosé bottles, and that we don't talk about the ‘brain print,’” said Solitaire Townsend, founder of climate-focused agency Futerra. “If we're not dealing with our role in consumption, overconsumption and greenwash, it's a massive miss.” Jonathan Wise, co-founder of climate-focused advertising network Purpose Disruptors, expressed a similar concern. Pointing to original research showing that advertising increases emissions in the U.K. by roughly 28%, Wise said the industry needs a “mature response.” “If the only conversation is about production and offices … that's simply addressing the relatively easy things we can do today,” Wise noted. “That is not a climate transition plan. That is not facing the severity of the situation and the responsibility that we hold as architects of desire.”

Cannes Lions

The Need for Climate Action Is More Urgent Than Ever. Can Cannes Lions Deliver?

Activists are planning a 'hype house' and a Baywatch-esque film about greenwashing

Kathryn Lundstrom

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Kathryn Lundstrom