Global Ad Giant WPP Shutters "Sustinability" Agency: Its 79 Clients Included Saudi Aramco, BP, Exxon, Shell, Total
Global ad giant WPP has closed AKQA Bloom, a Miami-based communications agency specialising in sustainability campaigns, according to an email to staff obtained by DeSmog, and merged its operations with parent agency AKQA. Founded in 2022, AKQA Bloom positioned itself as a forward-thinking advertising agency dedicated to environmental sustainability and social impact.
The AKQA staff email said that AKQA Bloom was being integrated into the wider agency’s “new regional structure” in the Americas along with AKQA Bloom’s clients and staff. According to its LinkedIn profile, AKQA Bloom had 10 employees. A source close to AKQA said WPP — a London-based holding company with around 90 agencies worldwide, one of the world’s biggest advertising agencies — made the decision in response to declining revenues at the holding company.
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AKQA Bloom’s closure in March comes amid concerns that the advertising and PR industry is not doing enough to address its complicity in the climate crisis, since WPP and other major holding companies continue to create campaigns on behalf of some of the world’s biggest polluters. AKQA has worked with Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil and gas company by revenue, since at least 2021, according to DeSmog research. WPP had at least 79 contracts in 2024 with other top fossil fuel companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and BP, according to the campaign group Clean Creatives – more than any of its major holding company rivals including Publicis Groupe, IPG, Omnicom, Dentsu and Havas.
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Solitaire Townsend, a sustainability communications expert, termed AKQA Bloom’s closure “equally amusing as it is frustrating,” and an indicator of the advertising industry’s failure to make a long-term commitment to addressing climate change. “These [types of] agencies are always set up with great fanfare,” said Townsend, “with the holding companies claiming to be experts in sustainability. “Then they are closed down when they are not a significantly profitable part of their business.” When the agency launched three years ago, AKQA Bloom executive directors Jean Zamprogno and Fernando Pellizzaro promised to create campaigns that would “protect the planet, open minds, and enrich lives,” according to the trade publication Campaign.
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https://www.desmog.com/2025/03/25/exclusive-global-ad-giant-wpp-shutters-sustainability-focused-agency/