‘Go and work for someone with ethics’: Comms Declare’s brutal message for adland staff
Staff working for advertising companies still taking on fossil fuel clients should “go and work for someone with ethics” if they want to make a difference, according to Belinda Noble, the founder of Comms Declare.
Comms Declare and Clean Creative has released the 2023 F-list, an investigation into advertising companies with climate-polluting partners. Coincidentally, the list was published the same day as Havas announced its global win of the Shell media account.
This year, apart from creative, media, PR and communications agencies, the local list included outdoor media companies for the first time.
This is one of the more outrageous pieces ever written on Mumbrella.
Imagine demanding that individuals and advertising agencies should be taking a greater responsibility while the government just allows these gigantic fossil fuel companies to pay virtually no tax and lobby our government into favourable legislation every election campaign.
Agency employee’s literally just out here trying to survive in a cost of living crisis, 80% of the office will never be able to afford to own their own home in a capital city, and you’re talking about representing fossil fuel companies and how it may reflect on the business. Honestly pull the other one.
How tone death can one person be.
Nice to see PR jumping in the comments section.
Australia really is in a woke mess.
It’s disappointing to once again make Comms Declare’s F-List for promoting a Cycling Race. It’s doubly disappointing to then be told to get educated by a group that can’t be bothered doing it’s own homework.
Either list every sponsorship deal involving a fossil fuel company or none. Anything else smacks of either a lack of education or just laziness.
This is a wildly insincere comment.
You made the F-List because you worked for a fossil fuel company. One could argue your F-listing is doubly deserved because you actively engaged in said fossil fuel company’s disingenuous green-washing efforts. You are part of the problem this article is attempting to highlight.
I’m not being insincere at all Mark. Quite the opposite.
My client is the Government of South Australia and the event is the Tour Down Under which happens to be sponsored by Santos. It is no different to any of the hundreds of sporting sponsorship arrangements around the country that might involve a fossil fuel company.
Greenwashing intent by Santos or not, Tour Down Under is the ONLY sporting event on this list. Comms Declare should either list them all, or list none. A point that you manage to avoid in your comment.
You did point the finger at me as being part of the problem for reasons that have nothing to do with the article. That’s grandstanding.
Lobbing grenades like “go work for someone with ethics” requires Comms Declare to be both accurate and consistent in it’s application of “calling out” agencies. In this case it has failed on one or the other. Which one is it?
Seriously off-putting self righteousness – while its laudable that our industry encourage positive change to help the environment, shaming people into dropping clients and serious revenue really isn’t the way to do it
Serious questions for Belinda Nobel.
Do you own an iPhone / android smartphone?
Do you own any technology that requires the use of batteries made using cobalt?
How many non-critical national/international flights have you been on in the past 2 years?
Do you own a car?
Once you’ve answered the above let’s talk about how serious you are when it comes to climate change.
@GretaT every single action we can possibly take is what will be required to halve our emissions. Suggesting you can’t take any action against the giants unless you’ve first tackled personal change is the type of thinking leading us to certain death. And very defensive of said fossil fuel polluters. All this said I’m sure Belinda Noble is considerably more conscious than most.
Does Belinda Noble think it is a better idea to denude the land of trees and blast up the ocean floor in favour of wind turbines – that DO NOT breakdown, solar panels – that also DO NOT break down and lithium batteries leaching into the ground and poisoning anything that is left while we sell our fossil fuels – our resources, to China and India who DO NOT CARE about the environment and will continue to burn it, only 100 times faster than we ever could so that they have fuel to live, industry to survive, and keep warm / cool. What about the demise of our forest industry? Now we will import all our wood from 3rd world countries where there are no regulations, and no replanting so their insect, animal and flora will become extinct, while we are destroyed by bushfires, and our industry and agriculture is decimated.
How’s this Jasmin, China installed more solar panels last year than USA has in it’s entire history combined. Or that their per capita emissions are almost less than half? They “don’t care?”
That’s ignoring the rest of the world offshoring the dirty manufacturing to China for convenience.
Ultimately all these comments will look absolutely bonkers after this upcoming Summer which will be bad and the following which will be absolutely catastrophic.
Reckoning with our decisions is part of an adult – it’s fine to work on an account like Santos or BHP but you also have to take responsibility for those consequences.
Why does this article and the comment response remind me of McCarthyism?