Edelman to fossil-fuel clients: you’re safe here

Edelman will keep some fossil-fuel money, thank you very much. Following a review of its client roster, the PR firm will not stop working with ExxonMobil and Shell, two companies it’s received criticism from activists for working with.

CEO Richard Edelman wrote in a blog post last week that the company wants to do more work “helping organizations acknowledge the significance of climate change and start their journey towards action.”

Back up: The review was conducted in response to increasing public pressure from activists like Clean Creatives, a coalition made up of creatives and agencies that have pledged not to work with fossil-fuel companies.

• “Advertising and PR campaigns by fossil-fuel interests are one of the biggest barriers to climate action,” Duncan Meisel, campaign director of Clean Creatives, told Marketing Brew in October.
• The group has been calling on Edelman to drop ties with all fossil-fuel clients since last year.

Since that didn’t happen, Clean Creatives wrote on Twitter that they felt “Richard Edelman never took this review process seriously.”

The scientist who inspired Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Don’t Look Up, Michael Mann, also weighed in. He told Adweek that climate change “requires a fundamental and rapid shift away from fossil fuels, and there’s nothing in Edelman’s latest statements that demonstrates that they recognize that.”

Hot water, hotter world: Edelman is not the only agency facing pressure to drop ties with oil and gas companies, but it does seem to be getting the most attention, possibly due to ExxonMobil’s reported history of “spreading disnformation” about the climate crisis.

• A 2017 Harvard University study found that ExxonMobil has “promoted doubt” about climate change in some ads since 1977. It’s also been accused of greenwashing in areas like biofuel technology.—KH