Clean Creatives

Clean Creatives South Africa is excited to launch the Creative Cleanup 2024 Young Creatives Challenge (formerly known as the Clean Creatives Schools Challenge). The challenge is an invitation to South Africa’s young creatives to join Clean Creatives SA in putting pressure on The Loeries to stop awarding creative work for the fossil fuel industry. Some creatives are unaware that they are directly connected to speeding up climate change by creating and building false perceptions for fossil fuel companies.

Clean Creatives South Africa welcomes UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ challenge to the advertising industry to abandon working with fossil fuel clients. He made this challenge yesterday (5 June) as the United Nations observes this year’s World Environment Day, which is themed ‘land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.’

Students from some of the top creative, advertising and design schools in the country took part in the Creative Cleanup 2023 live brief challenge. The challenge was clear – inspire ad-makers (their seniors) in the commercials industry to stop using their talents to promote fossil fuel companies. The winning work has been released and the message across the board was clear, these students do not want to touch briefs from fossil fuel companies.

Clean Creatives has taken another step toward fostering accountability among advertisers in South Africa who collaborate with fossil fuel companies. The local chapter has unveiled its F-list, featuring 41 agencies and PR firms in South Africa with either current or past partnerships with fossil fuel companies such as Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, and Sasol. This kind of advertising not only distracts from critical activism efforts but also hinders the progress of vital legislation aimed at mitigating the harm caused by these companies.

Students from South Africa’s advertising schools are currently coming up with ideas to inspire ad-makers in the commercials industry to stop using their talents to promote fossil fuel companies. These commercials directly contribute to the climate crisis by creating positive perceptions about fossil fuel companies, distracting from activism work and thus slowing down legislation that will stop the damage they are doing.

Clean Creatives is a movement advocating for the Advertising, PR and Production industry to decline work from the fossil fuel industry (think Sasol, BP, Engen, Shell, and Caltex for example). Their aim is to mobilise creatives in South Africa to stop using their talents to promote fossil fuel companies and to create a conscience around working for companies that are speeding up the rate of climate change. Here are some of the questions we had, before coming clean.