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To B, or not to B? For Havas, it seems to be the latter.
Four of the agencies within the Havas network—Havas London, Havas Lemz, Havas New York, and Havas Immerse—had their B Corp status revoked Thursday by governing nonprofit B Lab due to Havas Media’s work with oil and gas company Shell.
As part of its decision, B Lab announced that all Havas agencies will no longer be eligible for future B Corp certification.
The move comes nearly a year after a group of B Corp-certified agencies and the climate activist group Clean Creatives filed a formal complaint letter with B Lab, asking the nonprofit to re-evaluate the agency’s status and arguing that Havas’s work with Shell violates the certification’s Declaration of Interdependence.
Havas “cooperated in good faith throughout B Lab’s investigation,” Havas spokesperson Kristin Calmes said in a statement provided to Marketing Brew, adding that “we accept the ruling and they will cease to be B Corp certified.” The four Havas agencies that were previously B Corp certified “do not have a relationship with Shell,” she said.
Holding to account: Chris Norman, founder and CEO of creative agency Good, told Marketing Brew that he enlisted Clean Creatives in September to push for change after Havas secured the Shell contract and after Chris Turner, executive director of B Lab UK, was “very ambiguous about whether B Corp agencies could work with fossil-fuel clients” in an interview with The Drum.
While Good’s B Corp certification is something “we hold very highly” Norman said, “when those standards are kind of undermined by B Lab’s behavior, then it gets slightly difficult.”
He called the group’s Havas decision “a very exciting moment,” even if the review period took longer than he would have liked.
“It's a very decisive decision,” Norman said. “It sends out a very clear message, and it draws a line in the sand for all agencies that if you want accreditation, you need to live by the standards that you signed up to.”
Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, agreed. “The best outcome, of course, would have been that Havas dropped Shell and respected the work to become a B Corp and the many employees who worked quite hard to acquire that status,” he said. “If that's not going to happen, I think this is the next best option.”
Culture shock: In an interview with Marketing Brew last year, Lindsey Bagg, senior director of talent at Havas New York, told us the agency’s B Corp status was key in attracting new hires.
“We've spoken with Havas employees and they said it's something they were distinctly proud of,” Meisel said. “I think it was part of the culture that they were trying to build and I think their leadership has significant damage to that culture.”
Update 7/23/2024: This piece has been updated with a statement from Havas that was provided after publication.