Creative industries collaborate on ‘The Great Reset’ to tackle the climate crisis

Companies from across the UK’s creative industries have come together to launch The Great Reset, an initiative that hopes to maintain and promote the positive behaviours and environmental shifts created during lockdown.

With global emissions down by 7% thanks to lockdown, many across the creative sectors have stated their intention to use this moment as an opportunity to enact longer-term change.

The Great Reset is a movement initiated by the Purpose Disruptors network, an organistion which was formed by a group of advertising practitioners last year, who penned an open letter calling for the advertising industry to come together to help address the climate crisis. The initiative calls for people and organisations within the advertising, marketing and creative industries to pledge their support and #createthereset. Pledges include donating free media space, offering up creative time in response to The Great Reset creative briefs and amplifying the campaign.

A new poll conducted for The Great Reset through OnePulse showed that only 23% of the population believe post-lockdown advertising should encourage people to consume, shop and fly like before, while 77% think it is the creative industry’s responsibility to encourage people to behave more sustainability, as has been the case in lockdown. The Great Reset aims to harness this moment in time, and provide an opportunity to ‘reset’ and create work that meets the desire of 77% of the population and is in the best interests of both mankind and the future of the planet.

Adopting a unique, collaborative approach, over 200 practitioners from competing agencies within the community attended a series of online workshops throughout lockdown to develop the launch of the initiative. Contributors to the launch of The Great Reset included staff from Iris, Wieden & Kennedy, McCann, Gravity Road and Thinkhouse amongst others.

Earlier this year, the Advertising Association launched two new groups, following direction from its Council to coordinate full efforts from the industry on Climate Action. The groups – The Climate Action Steering Group (CASG) and the Climate Action Working Group (CAWG) were tasked with looking at how the industry can reduce its carbon emissions and contribute to the wider fight against climate change.

Commenting on the launch of The Great Reset, James Best, Chair, Advertising Association Climate Action Working Group: “The Purpose Disruptors have already provoked fresh thought and action over climate across UK advertising; with The Great Reset they promise to take this action further and faster, turning crisis into a springboard for real change. We should all support them.”

You can find out more information about The Great Reset here and the AA’s Climate Action groups here.