Advertising is fuel on the fire of the climate emergency

‘Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?’ the question goes in The Wild One. ‘Whatta ya got?’ Marlon Brando’s Johnny responds. Too often that’s our response to clients and to business in the communications industry. We love the action, we’re not fussed who it’s for. But we should care, right? Scientists are united on climate, our future colleagues are skipping school to demand action on it, even Rupert Murdoch’s media is looking to a carbon neutral future. It’s clear that creative services for business – advertising, PR, sales, media – provided without consideration for the impact of the work or client business can be fuel on the fire of the climate emergency.

Industry research (WARC, 2019) has shown that creativity is a significant multiplier for commercial outcomes – up to 15x – which is great if you’re talking about a government health program, plant-based foods or renewable energy. It’s far from good when we’re talking fossil fuels, fast food and intensive agriculture. The top 20 advertisers in Australia in 2020 included brands like Harvey Norman, Wesfarmers, McDonald’s and Amazon. This top 20 included many brands with intensive use of transport, agriculture, energy and industrial processes. These are significant contributors to our climate emissions in Australia according to the CSIRO.