F-list: Ogilvy and Edelman among those with most contracts with fossil-fuel clients

Campaign group Clean Creatives has published their annual F-List, providing an overview of the ad and PR industry's work with fossil-fuel clients. 

Now in its fourth year, the list reveals a total of 1,010 fossil fuel contracts held by 590 ad and PR agencies in 2023-2024. Of these 1,010 contracts, 692 are new and 318 have been continued from the F-List 2023. Overall, there are 551 previously unreported contracts.

As was the case in 2023, WPP is the holding group with the most contracts on the F-List, with 79 contracts from 2023-2024. Of WPP's agencies, Ogilvy had the most fossil-fuel contracts (15), followed by Burson with 12. 

While WPP reiterates in their 2023 Sustainability Report their existing policy to “not take on any client work, including lobbying, designed to frustrate the objectives of the Paris Agreement”, research by Clean Creatives shows that their client list still includes several lobbying firms, including the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), American Chemistry Council, American Petroleum Institute (API), and the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group. 

In addition, according to the F-List, 11 WPP agencies represent BP and/or Shell, who regularly receive greenwashing complaints. 

Meanwhile, Stagwell is the holding company with the least fossil-fuel contracts on the 2024 F-List, with seven contracts from 2023-2024, credited mostly to fossil-fuel utilities.

 

Edelman is the PR agency with the most fossil fuel contracts. And in the 2024 F-List, three new Edelman contracts with Chevron, Sasol and ConocoPhillips from 2023-2024 have been uncovered.

 

In the Asia-Pacific region, 219 contracts are split between major holding companies such as Dentsu, Edelman, Havas, Interpublic Group, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP for clients such as BHP, Chevron (Caltex), Engie (Simply Energy), Glencore, Manila Electric Company (Meralco), Pertamina, Petronas, Shell, and more. 

 

Within the region, Australia (130), India (22), New Zealand (13), Malaysia (9) and Indonesia (7) had the highest number of contracts.

 

Globally, Shell was found to be the fossil-fuel company with the most contracts (54), followed by BP (40), TotalEnergies (36), ExxonMobil (33), and Chevron (31). Other oil majors, such as ConocoPhillips (20), Saudi Aramco (19), Petronas, and Equinor (14 each), are also highly represented on the list.

 

However, a larger number of agencies on the F-List does not indicate a trend of more agencies taking on fossil fuel work, however. Campaign’s 2024 School Report—which provides individual analysis of 99 of the UK industry's top agencies–shares that 14% of agencies are “reducing work with fossil fuel clients,” 10% are not reducing work with fossil fuel clients, and 76% don’t currently work with fossil fuel clients.

On the same day that the F-List 2023 was announced, Havas Media won the competitive pitch for Shell's media division. Clean Creatives and its agency partners filed a complaint with B Labs regarding Havas' B Corp certification, and in July 2024, B Corp removed four Havas agencies' certifications and announced that "other entities in the Havas group are also ineligible to certify”. This established a precedent in which agencies face the consequences of working for fossil fuels.

This year's F-List added 30 new sources to their research process to find as many contracts as possible. To ensure accuracy, each contract uncovered had at least three different sources. For the first time, public affairs firms, production agencies, retail marketing agencies, recruitment agencies, animation studios and OOH agencies were also included in the total figure.

"The UN Secretary-General was right to call fossil-fuel agencies 'Mad Men fueling the madness,'" said Duncan Meisel, executive director, Clean Creatives. "Many things in the advertising industry have changed since the 1960s, but when it comes to climate change, major holding companies are still stuck in the era of indoor smoking, three-martini lunches, and Don Draper. Annual investment in clean energy is now double that of fossil fuels, and the creative industry could be a natural ally to climate action, but fossil fuel clients are standing in the way."

To date, over 1,200 agencies worldwide have signed the Clean Creatives pledge to refuse contracts from fossil-fuel organisations, along with over 2,300 creatives, dozens of brands, and a growing list of content creators and influencers.