Open letter to the marketing community: It's time to focus all our efforts on making the world a better place

Today, Blurred has joined the climate strike in solidarity with the vital, urgent movement catalysed by Greta Thunberg. We’ve done this in direct response to her challenge to “grown ups” and businesses to join forces with the inspiring movement being led worldwide by schoolchildren: not only the next generation of consumers, citizens and leaders, but the next inheritors of the planet we leave them.

We have closed our office, with the full support of clients, in order to join the march.

But we want to do more than that.

Today we make a public commitment to  assess the clients we work with, and those we would like to work with, against a framework that is mapped to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Because we believe that the first responsibility of our industry, when it comes to sustainability, is transparency. Our industry is capable of driving rapid behaviour change across society, around the world. We can and should take the lead rather than be driven.

So, in short, we commit to work only with organisations and brands that are supporting or making progress towards at least one of the SDGs, or have the sincere desire to do so and need our help. Thereby making some meaningful, positive difference to their own industry and the world, as measured by the indicators and targets underpinning the SDGs. We will not work with companies whose sole purpose is to drive ever-more consumption for consumption’s sake, as a route to purpose-less profit or growth.

Because that is sustainable for neither the world nor our own business.

We are delighted to be joined today in this initiative by several other agencies and consultancies, with which we intend to forge a working partnership for sustainable good within our industry.

There is a word in Swedish that we don’t have in English that is pertinent here. It is ‘orka’ and it translates as ‘having the energy or force to do something.’ When it comes to the climate crisis, the PR industry does have orka: it simply needs to find it, together.

And so, together, as a small group of small companies within that industry, we write this as an open invitation to others to join us, and show that the PR and marketing industry can truly affect behaviour change, as it has long promised.

Because, in the words of Greta, “no one is too small to make a difference.”

We will be announcing new initiatives in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, if you are striking today, congratulations. If not, please take today to think about who you work with, and for, and to what real end. And please join us.

Signed by:

Nik Govier, CEO, Blurred

Stuart Lambert, Founding Partner, Blurred

Katy Stolliday, Founding Partner, Blurred

Mike Buonaiuto, Founder, Shape History

Asad Dhunna, Founder, The Unmistakables

Hugh Davies, Founder, Warmer Communications

Ben Mason, Managing Director, The Tom Sawyer Effect

Luisa Tatoli, Managing Director, Roll Studio

Tijana Tamburic, Co-founder, Female Narratives