“A misinformation ecosystem:” Scott Morrison’s climate ads given Public Disservice Award

A Morrison Government advertising campaign has been labelled a “misinformation ecosystem” and given a ‘Public Disservice Award’ by international groups working to expose advertising agencies helping to greenwash the fossil fuel industry and spread climate misinformation.

The Morrison government’s Making Positive Energy advertising campaign was given the dubious honour by the international F-List awards “recognition of its significant investment in misinformation and propaganda.”

The award was shared with the creative agency The Monkeys for their work on the government’s campaign, having been hired to create the advertising materials, including graphics and commercials used across the campaign.

The campaign seeks to promote Australia’s investments in clean energy technologies and makes the contested claim that Australia had cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent over the last 15-years.

As revealed by RenewEconomy, the Morrison government will spend almost $31 million of taxpayer funds on the campaign, which has in featured television, print and online ads in an attempt to convince Australians that the Morrison government has implemented meaningful climate policies.

The advertising expense is more than four times as much as the Morrison government spent in preparing its ‘long-term’ emissions reduction strategy.

The F-List awards are an initiative of the organisations Clean Creatives – based in the United States – and the Australia-based Comms Declare, both of which have sought to shine a spotlight on advertising and PR agencies that have worked for the fossil fuel industry.

In announcing the inaugural winners of the Public Disservice Award, Clean Creatives’ Duncan Meisel said the Morrison government’s advertising campaign formed another part of its efforts to hold back action on climate change and singled out The Monkeys for criticism for their role in producing the campaign.

“Using public money to harm the public interest has rightfully earned The Monkeys this award for Public Disservice. The Australian government is holding the planet back with their commitment to the expansion of the coal, oil, and gas industry, and The Monkeys play a crucial role in this official obstruction,” Meisel said.

“What The Monkeys have done for the Australian Government sets them apart in the field of greenwashing and misinformation.”

The Morrison government paid The Monkeys a total of $1.1 million to produce advertising materials that make contested claims about the government’s success at reducing emissions, promotes “clean” hydrogen, and takes credit for Australian household investment in rooftop solar.

The Monkeys, based in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, has produced advertising campaigns for several high profile clients, including Amazon, Audi, Ikea, Telstra and the NRL. The agency has also won a wide range of advertising industry awards.

After initially committing to a budget of $10.45 million to spend on advertising slots for the campaign, the Morrison government quietly increased this budget in January to a massive $27.21 million.

It has seen the campaign run almost ubiquitously across television, print and billboard advertising – and has included a $340,000 spend on Facebook advertising.

Government officials recently told a senate hearing that the campaign will continue to run until April, right up to the expected federal election – all at the taxpayer’s expense.

Comms Declare founder Belinda Noble said the government’s Making Positive Energy campaign had been a significant source of misinformation and was designed to obfuscate the Morrison government’s failures on climate change.

“When you consider Australia is ranked bottom of the world for climate policy, the Positive Energy campaign is a real achievement in making monkeys out of all Australians,” Noble said.

“Spending more on promoting giving seaweed to cows than actually giving seaweed to cows is a brazen move that would even make tobacco executives blush.”

“Positive Energy is more than public misinformation, it’s a misinformation ecosystem. Of special note is the claim that the Federal Government has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, a figure that has been called misleading by ABC Fact Check.”

“Also notable is the clever misrepresentation of hydrogen made with gas and coal as being ‘clean’ and selling carbon capture and storage as a solution to climate change when it has never properly worked,” Noble added.

Comms Declare has called on advertising firms to decline to work with fossil fuel companies, and the Morrison government.

Prominent climate activist Bill McKibben called on the advertising industry to use its talents in support of stronger climate action.

“Thirty years of disinformation and denial has cost the world dearly; we can’t now indulge in a decade or two of playing pretend. We need these clever people using their creativity to help, not to slant,” McKibben said.