Marketers have been urged to consider the impact they have on Britons’ carbon footprints, after new research showed significant influence on behaviours from advertising, lobbying, marketing and PR activities.
In a new report entitled Towards Reimaging Advertising by academics Dr Andreana Drencheva and Dr Elisa Alt, the researchers concluded that UK advertising directly influenced nearly a third (32%) of Britons’ carbon activities in 2022.
The researchers developed a new methodology called the “advertised emissions” metric which calculates emissions resulting from any uplift in sales generated by advertising and marketing activity.
“There is a direct correlation between the advertising, marketing and media system’s brainprint on people’s behaviour, the natural capital required for their consumption and their carbon footprint,” the report found.
“Industries that sit at the roots of commercial sectors, like advertising, management consulting and finance, are system amplifiers. Their influence on the wider system can be disproportionate.”
The report noted that advertisers and marketers are largely “not incentivised” at present to ensure their promotional activities align with broader corporate or governmental environmental or sustainability goals.
“We need to reimagine our role and our system altogether,” the report states. “Along with leading nations and citizens, a growing body of businesses are already in the process of re-evaluating what commerce and the good life will look like within the next decade.
“With this responsibility, these industries must be more ambitious in imaging transformative change.”
The full report and a related article is available from Kings College, London.