When it comes to climate action, it must be all hands on deck—including the advertising and marketing industry.
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act is more limited that previously understood. As many activists and observers have noted, that puts even more pressure on industry leaders to cut emissions and use whatever sway they have to build momentum toward a clean energy transition.
Advertising, notes Futerra co-founder Solitaire Townsend, occupies a unique place within this effort. “We are the storytellers, the creatives, the ones that can spark change,” she told the World Federation of Advertisers during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week.
Those remarks were part of an interview series by WFA and Adweek in Cannes during the 2022 festival. In addition to Townsend, WFA spoke to Jonathan Wise, co-founder of climate-focused advertising network Purpose Disruptors, and Duncan Meisel, director of activist group Clean Creatives.
Below is the first in a three-part series with Townsend, Wise and Meisel, where they outline both the positive and negative impacts that marketing and advertising can have on climate issues. Then, they offer a roadmap to shifting away from harmful actions and toward a climate-positive agenda.
That roadmap includes measuring and incorporating Purpose Disruptors’ advertised emissions concept—the additional climate impact created when advertising increases sales and consumption of products. It also means cutting ties with fossil fuel clients, as the Clean Creatives campaign has been calling on agencies to do since its launch in late 2020.
“Are we going to serve the problem, or are we going to be part of the solution?” Townsend asked. “I’m not entirely sure which way to bet.” Hear more:
