We demand the premier advertising awards in South Africa, The Loeries, issue a public statement banning future entries for creative work, campaigns, and commercials crafted for fossil fuel companies. Here's why:

Climate change is dramatically altering our liveable planet to conditions threatening human survival and we urgently need to reduce emissions to prevent worsening floods, droughts, fires and crop failure. 

Fossil fuel companies are responsible for more than 3/4 of carbon pollution, and their business plans are not in line with globally agreed targets to reduce their emissions, like the Paris Agreement. They are in fact currently expanding their extraction activities, despite record profits, and the oil & gas industry only invested around 1% in low carbon energy last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

The lack of climate action to reduce emissions and keep us all safe (we have known about the link between burning fossil fuels and global warming for decades) is largely thanks to advertising and PR strategies designed to induce doubt, and now delay, in the public about the link between fossil fuels and climate change, crafted by agencies for fossil fuel companies. 

Advertising agencies should urgently cut ties with fossil fuel companies as working for them at this stage inevitably encompasses greenwashing - misrepresenting these companies' sustainability and confusing the general public about the viability of clean energy alternatives.

Fossil fuel advertising and sponsorships create a "social licence" for the biggest polluters (Sasol, for example, has the world's single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions at Secunda), which slows down the transition to clean energy as the public remains unaware of the need to hold these companies accountable for their dangerous pollution.

At the very least, we need the creative industry to stop awarding creative work which is promoting this harmful industry. We ask that the Loeries Board follows in the footsteps of other awards platforms, such as IDIDTHAT.co, in banning fossil fuel work from 2024.

NO LOERIES ON A DEAD PLANET #LoeriesFossilAdBan