Gustav Martner earned his first gold at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2007 for a car ad. This week, he crashed the opening ceremony of the 2022 festival to give it back. Now head of creative at Greenpeace Nordic, Martner has a simple message for the ad industry this week: Stop making…
It’s an exciting week: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity returns to the South of France after a two-year pause. But the global creative community is coming together against the backdrop of a very different world. For businesses, societies and the planet, the problems are decidedly greater. Action is needed at rapid pace. Every…
The last time the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity took place in person, nobody had heard of Covid-19 nor read a brief for a “We’re in This Together” spot. The United Nations was gearing up to deliver a three-part report detailing how burning fossil fuels was responsible for global warming that will devastate communities…
Leave it to Liquid Death to come up with a blind taste test that’s more reminiscent of a slumber party prank than a classic Coke versus Pepsi contest. The canned water brand–a renegade marketer that makes full-length horror flicks, draws blood from Tony Hawk and hires famous porn stars for its campaigns–has put a gross-out…
As major brands venture into the resale business, others have been making space for people to buy and sell used products for decades. Outdoor gear retailer REI Co-op sold used gear at its stores through its members-only “garage sales” for more than 60 years. In the last few years though, REI has transitioned away from…
Electric rental scooters crash-landed in Austin, Texas, in 2018. Almost immediately, Twitter was alight with locals’ displeasure at the way they sprawled across sidewalks. Some threw the two-wheeled menaces into the river, and a local brewery even created a beer for scooter haters: the No Scooters IPA. Four years later, the mood has shifted. City…
The artists behind Slug Global want to take you along on a field trip. The self-described art collective, which has done branding and experiential marketing work for top names like Foot Locker, Instagram and HBO, is setting its sights on a new realm: the outdoors. This week, Slug launched a new environmental justice-focused vertical called…
Historically speaking, themed merchandise has not been good to the planet. Whether it’s all the champions-themed merch produced for the team that doesn’t win the Super Bowl, the constant churn of fast fashion or any of the other items that capitalism’s endless hunger for stuff has thrust into our homes, it all ends up somewhere–usually…
A new climate change manifesto will see U.K. agencies, intermediaries and clients bake greater sustainability into their working processes, including media buying, briefing and production. The declaration will seek to ensure that the industry plays its part in reaching the goals set out under the Paris Climate Agreement and reduce carbon emissions. Organized by voluntary…
For the third year in a row, snacking is up, with a majority of both Gen Z (75%) and millennials (69%) even replacing meals with snacks, according to Mondel?z International’s State of Snacking report. If only these treats came in packaging that was as earth-friendly as a banana peel. Consumers are increasingly expecting companies to…
Climate change is causing more frequent and intense heat waves, with 2021 ranked the fifth warmest year on record since 1880. This is also exacerbating the issue of heat inequality, in which low-income residents and people of color are more likely to live in the hottest neighborhoods or lack access to air conditioning in cities…
Younger shoppers are conflicted. While polls consistently report that Gen Z is incredibly anxious about the environmental impact that humans are having on the planet, they’re also propping up a new, even faster iteration of the fast fashion industry. Shein, which claims to add 700 to 1,000 new items to its site each day, is…
United Airlines wants you to know: it’s not like other airlines. It’s a good airline. But when it comes to climate goals, the industry has a long way to go and a dismal track record of following through. Today, United is releasing a massive new ad campaign called “Good Leads the Way,” in which its…
The Columbus, Ohio, outpost of Two Men and a Truck resembles most any family-owned moving and storage franchise. Ensconced on an industrial lot north of downtown, the company does business out of a metal warehouse. Brawny moving guys in matching gray T-shirts come and go. And on the lot outside, there’s a fleet of 40…
Soy is a central ingredient in countless food items, but industrial-level soy cultivation has a heavy ecological impact. With the industry booming, downsides like depleted soil, erosion and water contamination require immediate solutions both for farmers and consumers. With a more sustainable soy industry in mind, Upfield’s Country Crock has teamed with agency Ogilvy to…
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and one of the world’s top producers of oil and gas, has a large and energy-hungry population. Yet about 60% of the country’s 200 million inhabitants lack access to reliable electricity, according to the government’s Nigeria Power Baseline Report. On most days, it is only able to dispatch around 4,000 megawatts…
The climate crisis touches everything. As scientists uncover the far-reaching impacts of global warming, businesses are working to understand exactly what it means for their operations–and what kind of innovations are required to adapt. For Adweek’s second quarterly report of 2022, we wanted to create a snapshot of what kind of sustainability-related changes are happening…
Plastic recycling isn’t working–and it’s worse than we thought. A new report by environmental nonprofit The Last Beach Cleanup and research group Beyond Plastics found that plastics recycling in the U.S. dropped to between 5% and 6% in 2021. That’s down from the last official numbers that the EPA published in 2020 showing that just…
Having an eco-friendly brand strategy has taken center stage for leaders in the food and beverage space in recent years. Pepsi’s chief marketing officer, Todd Kaplan, and Clif Bar & Company’s svp of impact and communications, Roma McCaig, joined a panel at Adweek’s Sustainability Summit to discuss their companies’ latest sustainability initiatives — from procurement…
Fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries, responsible for an estimated 10% of global carbon emissions and producing large quantities of waste. The problem seems to be getting worse, since the average use of a clothing item has decreased by more than 85% since 2002, according to Euromonitor. Meanwhile 33% of shoppers perceive…
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