Ad holding companies called out for alleged greenwashing tactics

International organisation DeSmog has called out the world's largest advertising holding companies for their greenwashing tactics. The agencies named include dentsu, Havas, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP. 

According to the research, DeSmog claimed that advertising companies often keep their fossil fuel industry work under wraps, even to their own staff. "At the same time, these agencies sometimes loudly promote their sustainability achievements," said the report, citing the public commitment to "an ambitious decarbonisation trajectory" made by Havas back in 2023.

"But later that year, the company won a contract to run Shell’s ad placement strategy. In 2024, it pitched for Shell’s global PR account," said the report.

The research also revealed those agencies have been presenting fossil fuel work as compatible with climate goals. "When a large deal is impossible to hide from the public eye, the Big Six may outline their fossil fuels clients’ inaccurate and lofty climate ambitions," said the research. It cited an October 2024 report by InfluenceMap which found that London-based WPP had more clients obstructing net zero climate policy than supporting it — the same position as IPG, US-based Omnicom, Tokyo-based Dentsu, and Publicis, headquartered in Paris.

While CEOs of the corresponding ad networks argue they are helping their fossil fuel clients on their energy transition journey, regulators say some of the ads they are making for them are misleading, said the report. In June 2023, an ad in Shell’s “Powering Progress” series created by WPP’s VML was banned by the UK advertising regular, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA ruled it could mislead consumers into believing renewable energy comprises a large portion of the oil giant’s business.

Furthermore, each of the ad holding companies has made public commitments to reduce the carbon emissions from their operations, but just as they exaggerate green claims for their clients, their reporting of climate progress isn’t always straightforward, said the research. For example, Publicis has offset carbon using credits from the Peru-based Verra Carbon Standard Madre de Dios programme, which has been extensively criticised, both for being ineffectual and for negatively impacting Indigenous rights. 

The research also accused these ad holding companies of deflecting attention from ‘advertised emissions’ and promoting their work on ‘green’ campaigns.

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“The advertising industry wields unparalleled influence over consumer behaviour,” said Kathryn Clare, researcher at DeSmog. “Our new investigation shows the playbook that the greatest creative minds use to create a culture of silence, deflection and misrepresentation to greenwash their own reputation, all at the expense of rising carbon emissions and greater profits and persuasion powers for Big Oil.”

Duncan Meisel, executive director at environmental group Clean Creatives said, “Ad holding companies are using an incredible number of deceptive strategies to avoid a very simple fact: working with fossil fuel polluters is incompatible with their climate goals. Spin will only delay the inevitable, and increase the damage done by polluters to companies’ bottom lines. Were these companies to look at the issue with honesty and integrity, they would drop fossil fuel clients tomorrow.”

Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research, a political and policy research firm, told DeSmog that ad and PR agencies that work for clients in “destructive industries” may also find “some client to hire them to do something good. "This approach allows firms to take credit only for the good and not the bad,” said Graves.

IPG and dentsu declined to comment when MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Havas, WPP, Omnicom and Publicis for a statement. 

The investigation follows Omnicom's recent acquisition of The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) in December last year, which was slammed for becoming one of the world's biggest contributors to climate misinformation.

According to a LinkedIn post by Clean Creatives, Omnicom will now hold 124 fossil fuel contracts, jumping ahead of WPP, which has the second-most with 79. "Combined, Omnicom will now include companies such as ExxonMobil, aramco, and Chevron on its client list, all of which have pledged to increase their pollution during the hottest year in human history," it explained. 

Clean Creatives went on to say that this means that the agency's work with fossil fuels will increase across every continent. These include Saudi Aramco and TotalEnergies in the Middle East, bp (Castrol), PETRONAS, and others in Asia, Copec, Gasolineras Uno and Pluspetrol in Latin America and Suncor and ConocoPhillips in North America, it said. 

"So where does that leave things in our view? If the new leadership of this combined company wants to build its foundation on future-thinking strategy, they should start by winding down their fossil fuel clients who face a growing number of major legal actions and threats to their business models," said Clean Creatives. 

In November 2024, Havas warned investors that it experienced "significant negative publicity and corresponding reputational harm" for taking on a client in the fossil fuels sector.

"The group has faced, and is likely to continue to face, negative publicity based on the identity of its clients and the public’s (or certain segments of the public’s) view of those clients, irrespective of the nature of the group’s services to those clients," said Havas in a prospectus listing. 

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