Business

The battle to hold PR firms accountable


Extinction Rebellion climate change activists during a protest at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

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LONDON – The public relations industry has a PR problem.

The role of PR firms and advertising agencies in “cleaning up” fossil fuels has come under close scrutiny in recent months, with media companies accused of obstructing climate action by way of spreading misinformation on behalf of their customers.

A peer-reviewed study published late last year in Climatic Change is the first to comprehensively document the role PR firms play in helping the world’s most profitable oil and gas companies improve their environmental image and prevent climate action. .

It shows that the energy giants have relied on PR firms and advertising agencies to improve their publicity messages for more than three decades.

The authors note, for example, how the PR industry has played an important role in mitigating the severity of the climate crisis, promoting solutions favored by industry as the best practice. prioritize and emphasize the benefits of using fossil fuels.

Undoubtedly, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, is a major cause of the climate emergency.

Yet the role of PR firms in climate politics is often overlooked, in large part because media companies have tried to perpetuate the adage that “best PR is invisible PR.”

“You know, my bottom line is that we really have to pay attention to this,” said Bob Brulle, a visiting professor of environment and society at Brown University and lead author of the paper. , told CNBC by phone.

None of them want to talk about this but we have to because this represents our industry’s greatest contribution to the climate crisis.

Christine Arena

Former executive vice president at Edelman

The study says PR firms are held accountable for some of the terms still used today to justify climate inactivity, such as “clean coal”, “renewable natural gas” and “carbon emissions”.

Academic research quantifying the PR industry’s role in climate politics has been followed by mounting pressure from outside advocacy groups, scientists and environmental activists.

Now, the prospect of US congressional hearings is likely to heat up even more.

Brulle told CNBC that this development clearly shows that the matter has “moved from the periphery to the core.”

Congressional hearing

Law makers Grilled Last year, oil and gas executives during a congressional hearing on climate misinformation. The executives of the world’s largest oil companies defended themselves and their companies’ actions at a hearing on October 28 – a hearing that parallels the landmark 1994 hearing. The symbol that led to the downfall of Big Tobacco.

Soon after, Carolyn B. Maloney, chair of the Oversight and Reform Commission, summons arrive ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP America, CoverAmerican Petroleum Institute, and American Chamber of Commerce for climate literature, including marketing, advertising, and public relations materials.

Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York and chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, U.S., on October 28, 2021.

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Campaigners say the move heralds a confrontation between lawmakers and PR executives, with the latter expected to be called as a witness to the industry’s climate-improvement campaign. fossil fuel industry.

Melissa Aronczyk, an associate professor of communications studies at Rutgers University, told CNBC via video call: “It’s ironic that public relations firms are most sensitive about bad PR, but that’s the way it is. real.

“The reason they’ve been invisible for so many years is by design, their strategic strength comes from staying behind the scenes, and I think that’s one reason why we mistake these companies for neutrality. .”

Aronczyk, co-author of a book that explores the history of environmental inaction in the United States and the rise of the PR industry, says it’s too easy to assume that PR and advertising agencies are simply simply work to relay the message of their fossil fuel customers. .

“But it’s really not. These companies are instrumental in creating, shaping, managing, and sustaining that conversation in the public domain,” she said.

“We can’t just treat them as neutral channels of communication. They are to a large extent information generators. They are strategic leaders who not only influence the way the public perceives them. get those companies but also what the companies do themselves.”

How has PR in the industry reacted?

While outside groups are putting pressure on advertising and PR agencies to stop tampering with the risk of a climate emergency, some of their own employees have also felt alarmed.

Last year, a letter from more than 1,100 employees at management consulting giant McKinsey harshly criticized the company’s practices with the world’s biggest polluters, according to The New York Times.

In response, McKinsey speak Reaching net carbon emissions by 2050 “requires engaging with high-emission sectors to help them transition. A retreat from these sectors may appease some critics, but it will not. address the climate challenge.”

Meanwhile, WPPlargest advertising agency in the world, said last year in their Sustainability Report that it identified “an increased reputational risk associated with working with oil and gas companies and making briefs that are harmful to the environment.”

A corporate sign outside the offices of British advertising giant WPP in London.

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Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm, which works with oil professionals like ExxonMobil, recently completed a 60-day review of its climate strategy. Company speak it has adopted new “operating principles” for working with heavy-polluting customers and said they “may have to part ways in some cases.”

However, Edelman has yet to give up any fossil fuel customers.

More recently, Edelman sought to defend his work with oil and gas companies, telling Financial Times that it needs to be “in the room” with them because they are the ones who need the most help with the energy transition.

“Empirically, that’s wrong,” Christine Arena, a former executive vice president at Edelman who resigned in 2015 over the company’s stance on climate change, told CNBC by phone.

“Not only is there validity to the argument that PR firms have played a central role, there is direct evidence that they have played a central role and I would note that no CEO of a company advertising or a PR firm has acknowledged the problem. ,” she said.

A spokesperson for Edelman did not respond to a request for comment.

Heavier than usual rains in Brazil, even during a rainy season, brought flooding, destroyed communities and led to the halt of iron mining operations across the state of Minas Gerais on Saturday, the 15th. January 2022.

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“None of them want to talk about this but we have to because this represents our industry’s biggest contribution to the climate crisis and this needs to be openly discussed and addressed in an open way.” proactive,” Arena said.

“If I were advising a client through such a crisis, the last thing I would advise is not to comment,” she added, noting all this feedback but making sure the matter escalates. .

Next person?

Last month, more than 450 scientists Calling PR firms and advertising agencies to abandon their fossil fuel customers and stop spreading misinformation about the climate. This is the first time many scientists have come together to call for the role of PR and advertising in fueling the climate crisis.

Duncan Meisel, campaign director of Clean Creations, a US-based group working to separate the PR industry from the fossil fuel sector, told CNBC by phone that it’s important to realize that most Most fossil fuel ads don’t try to sell their product.

Instead, they are often designed to demonstrate how a company supports innovation or to emphasize its importance in the transition to renewable energy.

“It’s public lobbying,” Meisel said. “They’re trying to influence the public perception of these companies so that these companies can continue their current business model.”

He added: “If you think about it, any agent’s pitch to a potential customer is basically: ‘We’ve got something you can’t do yourself and you can’t do it yourself. We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the perspective, we’ve got the insight, the creativity’… and that’s true in many cases.”

Meisel says he takes that message very seriously. “But, if that’s true, it means that you also have unique power in this situation. And if you can say that I’m not going to make this unique contribution to an industry that is taking the initiative. involved in destroying the biosphere then you can really leverage that.”

For Brulle, the growing pressure on PR firms to abandon their fossil fuel customers demonstrates the progress the climate accountability movement has made. He cites law firms as an example of another group that may not be under the microscope because of their purported role in the climate crisis.

For example, Law Students on Climate Accountability, founded in 2020 by a group of Yale Law students, has call for law firms cease providing legal services to the fossil fuel industry. The group also launched a separate campaign to boycott law firm Gibson Dunn for their work with energy companies.

A spokesman for Gibson Dunn did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

“It’s about holding what I call ‘agents of obstruction’ accountable. In other words, it’s law firms, management consultants, PR firms and all. Various corporate organizational units make a lot of money, says Brulle.

He added: “They’re being pulled in slowly but surely and I see it as an ongoing process. I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I think it’s going to keep expanding.”



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