Stark warning issued to agencies pitching for Shell Energy
As Shell Energy’s creative account goes to pitch, a stark warning has been has issued to agencies planning to get involved.
The petroleum company’s energy business, which is said to provide energy solutions across gas, electricity and environmental products to Australian commercial and industrial customers, is pitching its creative account after working with Brisbane-based agency Nous on recent campaigns.
Comms Declare’s founder Belinda Noble, who has been vocal in the past on environmentally unethical brands and agencies, has described Shell as an “Olympic gaslighter” as it has “talked up” its energy transition, while also “weakening its 2030 emissions reduction target and abandoning its 2035 target entirely”.
“Shell heavily promoted its net zero target in Australia, while internal emails revealed it was ‘not a Shell business plan’,” Noble alleged. “These greenwashing claims are being investigated by the corporate regulator.
“The energy retailing side of the business is the friendly face of an international corporation betting against the energy transition and a safe future for our children,” she added.
She warned that agencies may think that taking the account is helping to promote renewables, but in reality, “they will just be propping up a brand doubling down on oil and gas and damaging their own reputation in the process”.
This is not the first time Noble has issued warnings to adland. In September last year, Noble told staff at agencies still working with fossil fuel companies to “go and work for someone with ethics”, after releasing the 2023 F-List, which found more than 90 Australian agencies are believed to currently have fossil fuel clients, almost doubling the 54 agencies in 2022. Four agencies were removed.
The F-List, an investigation into advertising companies with climate-polluting partners, included outdoor media companies for the first time locally. Coincidentally, it was published the same day as Havas announced its global win of the Shell media account.
Havas suffered major backlash after taking the Shell account, with 26 communications and advertising agencies calling on B Lab to strip the UK-based agency of its B Corp certification.
“There are B Corp agencies working with the fossil fuel businesses that derive 95%+ of their revenues from fossil fuel, and that % has been growing,” said Chris Norman, founder and CEO of GOOD Agency (the UK’s largest and highest-scoring B Corp agency), in light of the Havas news. “They are also working with the businesses that enable and fund these fossil fuel companies. This is ambiguous at best, disingenuous and hypocritical at worst.”
Earlier this year, Noble and Comms Declare’s Fossil Ad Ban project also made noise, erecting billboards across Australia’s east coast capitals, calling for a ban on fossil fuel advertising.
The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has released a Draft Environmental Claims Code, which cautions against any green claims from fossil fuel companies because of the overall damage they cause.
Released in January, the Exposure Draft invited public comment on the proposed updated regulations. Once finalised, the new Code will form part of the advertising industry’s self-regulatory system, overseen by the AANA. The industry body’s regulations are intended to complement Australia’s consumer protection laws and the ACCC’s guidance.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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This seems an almightily uneducated perspective. To call Shell Energy the ‘friendly energy retailer’ is to downplay what a massive energy trading business it actually is, and how Shell Energy is the part of the business actually making some of the most meaningful moves in the right direction. Comms Declare are cute and loud but I’d rather have take on board the perspective of an academic or engineer as opposed to some low-rent PR flack. Boring.
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Holly Valance said it all in her recent monologue
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Sustainability is such a major issue these days – good to see this type of insight highlighted for the industry to review.
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Do criticise Shell but don’t be a hypocrite with your:
– PETROL powered car
– electricity supplier to your home who uses COAL because you haven’t even bothered to look for a renewables supplier
– lack of SOLAR and BATTERY at home
Are you also part of the problem?
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So the woke moral guardians are now going to tell agencies how to earn a living and what they can work on . ? Vile hypocrites with a carbon footprint… telling people who they can work with ? I’m so glad I worked on tobacco accounts for years without these clowns – who would not pay my bills and put food on my table 🙂
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Every company deserves a fair hearing in the court of public opinion.
I am incredibly happy to honour the noble causes of choice and transparency.
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Full disclosure- I actually have bought fuel from a Shell petrol station .
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I’d work with Shell Energy, if they were willing to have an honest conversation about their role in climate change, and demonstrate a willingness to be part of the systemic change needed.
That would be page 1 of my pitch… then it would continue with the requirement for them to plot the journey to 2080 with public commitments to transitioning to zero carbon energy. And only then, can you start on an effective brand strategy.
Anything less is greenwashing.
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