No purpose, no choice

It’s London Climate Action Week. And despite the name, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s London Climate Drinks Week (yup, going to two myself!) or perhaps London Climate Chatter Week. Lots of hot air (couldn’t resist) and lots of fine words. Now, it’s easy to make commitments in the heat of the moment (I can’t help myself), but of course we need action. 

This year’s 'week of action' comes at a time when companies are either rowing back on their climate commitments or not backing them up with meaningful targets. Reasons are along the lines of ‘it’s more complicated than we thought’ (!) to 'it will take ages for the infrastructure to be in place’. To which I say 'sure, what can you do to address those challenges?' 

It’s clear we need leadership. To me this means blending ambition with the right approach, being an activist and building alliances, and being accountable and aware enough to do what you need to do to be resilient in the face of the climate and nature crisis we all face. 

Yesterday I was at an event titled ‘The role of media, advertising and brands in telling the story of how we need to live’. A lively discussion was skilfully helmed by my good friend Lizzie Shupak, who asked searching questions and shared some beautiful writing: giving us something for both head and heart. Thank you Lizzie!

In response, we heard some stories of self-confessed spotty good practice from Richard Huntington, of Saatchi and Saatchi; a call for more regulation to raise the floor from Silvia Pavoni of the Banker; and from Seb Munden, Chair of Ad Net Zero, who said agencies need to ‘change how we make the work and change the work we make’. It was left to Lisa Merrick-Lawless of Purpose Disruptors to – as she elegantly put it – ‘walk the elephant into the room’ at the top of the event, describing the advertising industry as ‘drivers of overconsumption’. 

My thoughts kept coming back to purpose. 

Earlier this month the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for fossil fuel advertising to be banned. So if that’s the direction of travel, will we see more advertising agencies saying they won’t work for fossil fuel clients?

To make that choice though relies on having a clear sense of purpose. Professional service firms are generally dreadful at this, and likely to say their purpose is ‘serving clients to the best of our ability’. Which, as I have said before, is not a purpose, it’s customer care. Table stakes – no more. How can the industry players move to adopting a purpose that is about wellbeing for all people and the planet? 

Because it’s only with a clear purpose that you can make informed decisions about ‘the work you make’ as Seb Munden put it. As we have found for ourselves and our friend and client Green Element, your client selection process aligns with your purpose. Without that purpose, making profits becomes all you stand for, and you will work for anybody.

Surely the action we need to see this London Climate Action Week is companies taking a leap into the purpose economy and leaving the extractive economy behind?

After yesterday's event I was left with one abiding question: How can the London-based advertising industry be the best for the world not just the best in the world?