Four agencies owned by French advertising group Havas have been stripped of their B Corp status – an indicator of high social, environmental and corporate governance standards – because of the company’s work for Shell, the certification watchdog said.
The decision underscores the growing reputational risks facing advertising and public relations firms that portray themselves as climate champions while advancing the interests of oil and gas companies.
“Havas London, Havas Lemz, Havas New York and Havas Immerse are no longer certified B corps,” B Lab UK said in a statement. “Other entities in the Havas group are also not eligible for certification.”
Although the four agencies had no direct relationship with Shell, B Lab UK believed that decisions made at group level were relevant to their B Corp status, as Havas used a common brand across all its agencies.
B Lab UK said it found Havas’ actions to be a breach of B Corp’s core community values as expressed in its Interdependence Statement, and that Havas refused to take the unspecified remedial actions needed to maintain certification.
“Toxic to Your Brand”
Havas said it accepted the decision.
“Our level of commitment to sustainability remains unchanged,” the company said in a statement. “We are proud to support our clients in their transformation into the future and remain focused on progressing towards the highest levels of social and environmental performance, with more to come in the coming months and years.”
The agency’s loss of B Corp status is a blow to Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré, who last year defended the company’s decision to sign a major advertising deal with Shell on the grounds that Havas could use its insider position to influence the company to become more sustainable.
In an interview with advertising magazine Campaign in October, Bolloré said: “As long as we improve things, B Corp agrees that we can work with [controversial] industries.”
Bolloré has previously sought to position Havas as a climate champion, expressing his concern about the climate crisis in interviews and arguing that a global communications group on the scale of Havas could play a positive role in influencing people to make more environmentally friendly decisions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month called on governments to ban fossil fuel advertising, warning creative agencies that working for the industry would prove “toxic to your brand”.
‘Cover for Greenwashing’
In October, a group of 22 other B Corp-certified PR agencies called for Havas London, Havas Lemz (based in Amsterdam), Havas New York and Havas Immerse (based in Malaysia) to lose their B Corp status on the grounds that they were working for fossil fuel polluters conflicted with B Lab values.
“Creative agencies shouldn’t work for companies that are destroying the planet. I want to thank B Labs for doing the right thing and decertifying agencies that promote fossil fuel polluters,” said Duncan Meisel, CEO of Clean Creatives. “They listened to the dozens of B Corps who spoke about this and took the right steps to protect their community from agencies that wanted to use certification as a cover for greenwashing.”
Chris Norman, chief executive and founder of GOOD Agency, the UK’s most accredited B Corp advertising agency, which was among the complainants, said the time it had taken B Lab to reach its verdict had damaged its reputation, but he hoped the decision would set a precedent.
“There should never be any doubt that an agency helping to promote and support a fossil fuel company should retain its B Corp accreditation,” Norman said. “While the delay damages B Lab’s reputation and undermines confidence in the accreditation, we are pleased that there is now a precedent establishing this principle. We hope this is now replicated as standard practice across all B Corp agencies.”
Earlier this month, Clean Creatives said it filed another complaint against B Lab after discovering five more B Corp-accredited communications agencies — Cullen Communications; Edit; SEC Newgate; Tinkle Communications (Havas subsidiary); and Total Media — have worked with fossil fuel clients in the past three years.
There was no immediate indication of any potential business impact of the ruling on Havas.
When Shell’s choice of Havas came to light in mid-September, the campaign group Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative immediately and loudly canceled its communications contract with Havas Red, an American subsidiary based in New York.
It was unclear whether any clients of the four former Havas B Corp agencies would follow him.
B Corp status is also sought after by agencies competing to attract creative talent, the lifeblood of the advertising industry, from the climate-conscious younger generation.