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.

The source, who asked not to be identified for fear of professional repercussions, also said that WPP intends to bring in more clients from the fossil fuel industry.

AKQA, which is also based in London, confirmed in a statement that AKQA Bloom was being absorbed, saying the decision would “strengthen our dedication to purpose-driven innovation.” WPP did not respond to a request for comment.

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.

WPP’s 2023 annual report stated that it would not take on client work “designed to frustrate the objectives of the Paris [climate] Agreement”.

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. 

The celebrated advertising veterans previously won a sweep of prestigious Cannes Lions awards in 2021, for a Burger King ad campaign that featured a decomposing burger to highlight the removal of artificial preservatives from the chain’s food.

An AKQA spokesperson stated at the time of AKQA Bloom’s launch that AKQA was “the perfect incubator for this project, sharing the same values and goals”, suggesting it was significant that a duo of Zamprogno and Pellizzaro’s acclaim wanted to prioritise environmental sustainability in their work.

AKQA Bloom’s notable campaigns ranged from a 2023 project with soccer team Inter Miami to create kits made from recycled materials, to a partnership with the TEDxAmazônia conference, also in 2023, to raise awareness about threats to the Amazon rainforest.

The agency also worked on an ad campaign for Coca-Cola in 2024 that promoted the brand’s returnable bottle scheme. Behind the colourful ads, Coca-Cola remains the world’s top plastic polluter. Last year the drinks giant abandoned its pledge to achieve 25 percent reusable packaging by 2030.

The advertising and PR industry is under growing scrutiny for its role in enabling the fossil fuel industry to delay meaningful climate action. Some agencies have created ad campaigns for oil and gas clients that emphasise their minute investments in clean energy development, masking the billions more they continue to spend on prioritising oil and gas development. Other campaigns have emphasised the role that technological climate solutions like carbon capture and storage could play in cutting carbon pollution, even though experts — including the fossil fuel industry itself — know that they are forecast to be marginal at best.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been calling the ad and PR industry “enablers of planetary destruction” and urging agencies to drop their fossil fuel clients. His statements echo those of campaigners targeting agencies such as WPP for their complicity in blocking climate progress.

Two climate groups, Adfree Cities and the New Weather Institute, filed a complaint last month against WPP with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for allegedly violating OECD guidelines on reducing climate and environmental harms and protecting human rights. WPP responded by saying that it “adhere[s] to the highest regulatory standards in [its] work for clients” and that advertising was crucial to economic growth.

Despite WPP’s hesitation to drop its fossil fuel clients, Townsend believes that the ad industry will cycle back around to climate-friendly initiatives when it suits them: “They’ll be back again in four years when sustainability is on the upswing, because unfortunately climate change isn’t going anywhere.”

Last year was the hottest year ever recorded, The World Meteorological Organisation recently confirmed, with average global temperatures passing the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5 degrees Centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial averages. Each of the past 10 years ranked as among the hottest on record, the WMO reported.  

While it is hard to quantify the ad and PR industry’s contributions to the worsening climate crisis,  a 2024 report from Carbon Tracker found that none of the world’s top 25 oil and gas companies are currently on track to slash their carbon emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement.

To visit DeSmog’s database profiling dozens of advertising and PR companies with ties to the fossil fuel industry, click here.