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It began with Emma Chamberlain. Now Clean Creatives is taking on the rest of the influencer community.<\/p>\n
This week, the group released its Creator\u2019s Pledge, which asks them to \u201cdecline any future contracts with fossil-fuel companies, trade associations, or front groups.\u201d Previously, the group had been mostly focused on encouraging agencies, like Edelman, to reject working with fossil-fuel clients.<\/p>\n
Jacob Simon, associate creative director at Clean Creatives, told us the goal is for creators to cut ties with the fossil-fuel industry, but not necessarily the agencies that work with these clients. Instead, he said, \u201cwe want [creators] to be aware of the agencies that are working with fossil-fuel [companies] and open a dialogue with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clean Creatives worked with six creators from EcoTok Collective, including Gabrielle Langhorn and Kristy Drutman, to get the word out about the pledge. In her post about it, TikToker Carissa Cabrera said that \u201cwhat we\u2019re doing in the climate movement is working\u201d based on what she described as a \u201cscramble\u201d from Big Oil to pump out influencer campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a natural jump for [fossil-fuel companies] to target creators because creators have so much power and reach\u2014perhaps more than traditional advertising nowadays,\u201d Simon said. \u201cBased on just everything I\u2019ve seen, it\u2019s clear that fossil-fuel companies want the public to see them as doing the right thing and making the planet a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
As influencer marketing has grown in recent years, so too has oil companies\u2019 interest in it: In 2020, Teen Vogue reported that brands like Shell were \u201cincreasingly sophisticated in their youth outreach, producing flashy YouTube videos and Instagram pics for their own channels, and recruiting social media influencers to peddle their goods in sponsored posts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, an investigation by Novara Media found that \u201cboth BP and Shell have been major sponsors of influencers in recent years, funding campaigns that have reached billions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, Simon said Clean Creatives has not approached any of the creators they\u2019ve seen in sponsored posts for fossil-fuel companies about signing the pledge, though he\u2019s hopeful more creators will understand the damage done by those companies as the pledge gains traction and more people sign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n