A couple years back I joined a nonprofit movement called Clean Creatives; their main goal is to make fossil fuel advertising extinct, just like tobacco.
They go as far as naming-and-shaming (bottom of that page) the advertising agencies that create ads and marketing for fossil fuel companies.
A recent win is that Vox Media in the US has formalised a policy they started in 2021 – banning ads for fossil fuel companies across it’s whole network of websites, podcasts, as well as it’s own ad network
It’s pretty big. If you’ve seen ads for any petrol company, or ads talking up things like “clean coal”, that’s the kind of thing they’re working to stamp out.
The Vox ban is a big throwdown, challenging other big outlets to follow suit – I imagine the threat of being named and shamed must sting a little too.
If your creative agency publishes their client list and there’s a questionable client on there, ask them about it: another thing CC encourages is that orgs like us challenge our creative agencies to walk away from their fossil fuel clients… or have us walk away from them.
For self-employed creatives, normal business traps are easy to fall into and overcomplicate things - but they’re totally avoidable when flying solo.
Learn how to keep things simple, enjoyable, and climate-smart in around 2 minutes a day by joining The Climate Soloist.