It's The F-List Awards, Recognizing Outstanding Achievements In Greenwashing And Climate Bullshit!

[hatrack]

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The first sardonic honor at the F-List Awards, “Environmental Impact of the Year,” went to Hill+Knowlton Strategies for its work with the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative, a group of 12 oil company CEOs including Bernard Looney of BP and Amin Nasser of Saudi Aramco. Then, the agency BBDO was recognized for “Excellence in Science Fiction” for its ads about ExxonMobil’s algae biofuel initiative, which portray the company as a clean energy pioneer. (For the record, Exxon has spent at least $200 million more on corporate advertising than its algae project since 2009.) None of the firms, of course, were present to receive accolades.

Next, McKibben (who is a member of Grist’s board) opened his “virtual envelope” to present the “Most Impressive Cognitive Dissonance.” It went to Iris Worldwide, an agency that has advertised for both the oil company Shell and COP26, last year’s international climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. “That’s exciting for them, to have gotten to represent both the people trying to solve this problem and the people who are creating this problem,” McKibben quipped. “If there’s anything I know about ad agencies, it’s that they love prizes and awards of all kinds.”

For years, agencies have been rewarded for helping oil and gas companies improve their image. In 2007, a few years before BP’s offshore oil rig exploded, spilling more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the firm Ogilvy & Mather won an Effie advertising award for “sustained success” in its long-running campaign to rebrand the company formerly known as British Petroleum as “Beyond Petroleum.”

In more recent years, trade associations haven’t been handing out as many prizes to oil and gas campaigns, said Duncan Meisel, the campaign director for Clean Creatives. But, simply because of the sheer number of award shows out there, there are still some campaigns getting recognition at the Reggie Awards or Stevie Awards, for instance. In 2020 the lower-case advertising agency mcgarrybowen and media agency Wavemaker were finalists at the Effies for their commercials for Chevron. As the summary for the award explains, “The energy industry was losing trust, leading to increased scrutiny … To reclaim progress, we celebrated the DOERS who make things happen and how the energy Chevron provides helps them get things done.”

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https://grist.org/culture/greenwashing-for-oil-companies-awards-clean-creatives/

[underpants]

1. 🌎

Good read.