Advertising employees are disproportionately anxious about climate change and worried about the industry’s impact on the environment, according to new research conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the IPA Media Climate Group.
The findings, which were officially launched as part of Ad Week Europe, suggest there is a strong demand among talent for the advertising industry to accelerate progress towards Net Zero. When asked whether enough was being done to address climate change, more than two-thirds (70%) of employees of IPA agencies said the industry was doing too little – though this dropped to 49% when respondents were asked to describe their own company’s environmental policies.
The report also revealed that industry employees are significantly more likely to be worried about rising global temperatures. Asked to describe their feelings towards climate change, 53% of agency employees selected ‘anxious’ and 37% said ‘demoralised’ – compared with 37% and 14% for the general public, respectively. Lying behind this contrast is a commonly held belief among industry talent that media is having a negative impact on climate change. Agency employees were four times as likely to argue that advertising is having a negative impact (48%) than a positive one (12%). This sentiment was not shared by the general public, where only 17% believed the industry to be having a detrimental effect.
The IPA Media Climate Group, of which the7stars is a founding member, comprises representatives of 52 media agencies and was set up in 2021 to spotlight the industry’s policies around Ad Net Zero and to focus on reducing emissions from media planning, buying, and distribution.
This year, the7stars is accelerating its efforts to make progress towards Net Zero including setting science-based target setting across Scopes 1, 2 and 3. the7stars’ Ecostars leadership team – open to everyone across the agency – offers all climate-minded employees, regardless of experience, the opportunity to propose innovative solutions. The ability to influence climate policy however, is not being felt widely across the advertising industry. Just 25% of IPA agency employees said they could influence their company’s ‘strategies to reduce adverse environmental and social impacts’.
Sadly, the ability to influence climate policy is not being felt widely across the advertising industry. Just 25% of IPA agency employees said they could influence their company’s ‘strategies to reduce adverse environmental and social impacts’.
Speaking on a panel following the presentation of the research at AdWeek, the7stars’ Rob McLaren argued that industry employees at all levels should be offered the chance to influence their company’s climate policies, following the example of the Ecostars.
Positively, the advertising industry does not appear to be staring down a crisis of talent recruitment. A majority (53%) of 16-24-year-olds surveyed said they would consider a career in advertising. Yet, as the panel concurred, recruiting individuals who are passionate about the environment will be crucial to tackling the industry’s negative sentiment around climate change.
Pauline Robson, Chair of the IPA Media Climate Group, commented, ‘What we’re seeing is that advertising’s impact on climate change is not necessarily a deterrent to recruitment into our industry but could well become a retention issue if we don’t address these findings fully.’
