An advertising campaign also has an impact on the environment, let's understand which one

When calculating the environmental impact of an advertising campaign, both the CO2 produced by logistics and the consumption impulse must be considered

• The environmental impact of an advertising campaign can be calculated through its direct and indirect effects with respect to the production of CO2.
• In fact, if on the one hand it is important to understand what the most impactful aspects of a campaign are in terms of production and logistics, it is equally important to evaluate the consequences of the impulse to consumption that this generates.
• Fashion is a playground in which there would be ample margin for what is defined as "eco-friendly advertising", that is, advertising that encourages people to adopt responsible behavior towards the environment.It is also a sector in which creativity can make up for the waste of resources, read under "artificial intelligence".

The advertising industry is one of the most influential drivers of change in modern society, yet there‘environmental impact of a campaign it is often overlooked.The responsibility that the sector has in tackling climate change could be fundamental in creating more pro-environmental attitudes.In fact, the advertising sector has adirect carbon footprint, but also contributes to climate change by stimulating unsustainable economic growth and promoting a consumerist lifestyle harmful to the climate, when not directly greenwashing in favor of polluting products and companies.

At the same time, due to the enormous power that resides in its hands, the advertising industry can also play a fundamental role in the fight against climate changes themselves.It can do this directly, cutting the carbon footprints of advertising campaigns, but also fighting greenwashing and engaging in the promotion of messages useful for promoting an ecological lifestyle.In the same way that traditional advertising constitutes an impulse to consumption, in fact, the ecological advertising it can move consumers away from climate-damaging consumption patterns towards a low-carbon culture by providing accurate information and leveraging psychological processes such as moral satisfaction and living in contact with nature.The market value of the entire sector is currently estimated at approximately 600 billion dollars, but it increases every year.

The persuasive power of a campaign

In the essay Perspectives:Advertising and climate change – Part of the problem or part of the solution? (Perspectives:Advertising and climate change – Part of the problem or part of the solution?) the economist Patrick Hartmann Indeed, it argues that individuals who prioritize materialistic values ​​and goals not only consume more, but also act in less environmentally friendly ways.Meat consumption by the average American citizen, for example, went from 89 kilos per year in the 1960s to 124 in 2008.Despite the increase in sales of plant-based food products, global meat consumption is expected to increase by 14% by the end of the decade.Not to mention the firepower of Shein, brand of ultra fast fashion capable of having generated, in 2022 alone, 30 billion dollars with an increase of 91% compared to the previous year.

Purpose Disruptors, an association that aims to push the advertising industry into alignment with IPCC targets of 1.5 degrees global warming, he defined with the term “advertising issues” the CO2 emissions produced byabsorption of sales generated by advertising.Such carbon-intensive advertising includes fossil fuels, transportation such as automobiles, textiles and red meat.According to their calculations, advertising emissions in the UK increased by 11 percent from 2019 to 2022, producing 208 million tons of CO2 emissions.This is equivalent to adding 28 per cent more to the carbon footprint of every British citizen every year.While the sector is expected to reduce emissions to 93 million tonnes by 2030 to be in line with theParis climate agreement, the current trend would instead see the sector rise to 273 million tonnes.

Fashion is one of the terrains on which the battle of ecological advertising, if we want to call it that, could be played out.Both because the emissions produced to create a photographic campaign are very high, we will talk about it in detail, and because it is a terrain in which the communicative impact of the image is very strong.There are many brands that have made the sustainable fashion their field of action to have used over the years, campaigns that combine aesthetics with morality, combining the inspirational purpose with the practical one.Telling a story, exciting and bringing together a community around a certain theme is the power in the hands of advertising campaigns and, some in the fashion sector in particular, have represented a clear change of direction in the sector.In particular, three campaigns were particularly incisive from this point of view:that of Patagonia entitled “Don't buy this jacket”, which called for responsibility in purchasing and released on the occasion of the Black Friday of 2011, that of Stella McCartney of 2017 set in a landfill in Scotland and the campaigns released each year by Ecoalf, a Spanish brand that has made the motto “Because there is no planet B” its payoff.

The environmental impact of a campaign

Beyond the message, what must be taken into account is the mole of CO2 emissions caused bymaterial and logistical organization of a campaign. Amazed by is a production agency that recently obtained environmental certification ISO 14001, in 2022, and confirmed it for 2023.With one of its members, Carlo Paterno', we have tried to reconstruct which are the most polluting processes and the countermeasures that can be adopted to minimize their impact.«75 percent of the CO2 produced by a campaign is generated by transport and travel, both of people and goods:this happens both when shooting in a particular location desired by the client, perhaps chosen for its visual impact or for what it evokes, but also when shooting in the studio:in fact, it often happens that the photographer wanted by the brand is based in New York, or in London, and therefore you have to fly it to Italy.He, in turn, perhaps only works with certain make-up artists or stylists:he absolutely wants them and maybe one will come from London and the other from the States.Then there are the celebrities, who generally don't move and force the group to move, so if the talent on duty lives in Los Angeles, the production with the entire crew packs up and goes to California.However, regardless of who moves, in general we travel a lot.For a campaign shot in Sicily, for example, we handled 60 people who flew from Paris:including us from Milan and other workers, a total of around 140 people moved."

When calculating transport, the following are also considered goods moved:for example, in the case of campaigns created for non-fashion customers there is a need to receive clothes, which are then also returned and which require packaging.«This instead impacts the waste calculation which is carried out in litres».Other important aspects to consider are the settings, which sometimes can be reused, as in the case of a white background, other times not and are discarded.Finally another voice in terms of environmental impact it is catering:on the sets, which usually last many hours or entire days, food and drink is provided for everyone.«We always try to prefer local catering that uses local raw materials as much as possible» he explains Sara Maubert by Amazed By.«Furthermore, when the customer does not specifically request the meat, we give priority vegetarian menus.By making these choices, our caterers do not have such a huge impact, plus we do not use plastic, but where we can, ceramic plates and ordinary cutlery, or everything is compostable and biodegradable.THE'water is always in glass and, on sets where this is prohibited, we bring our paper bricks."Amazed By has made its processes as efficient as possible, both internally in the office and on the sets, AND, with the help of Lifegate, has developed a spreadsheet that makes it possible, at the end of each advertising campaign, to evaluate exactly what the impact was in terms of tons of CO2, so as to be able to then intervene in offsetting, participating in compensation projects.

Could artificial intelligence represent a solution?

A possible solution to cut the costs, also and above all in environmental terms, of a campaign, is to use theartificial intelligence and it is the one that was adopted by Edzard Van der Wyck and Michael Wessely, the co-founders of Sheep Inc. The brand, which specializes in luxury knitwear, is known for its cutting-edge approach and commitment to sustainability and, to create the latest campaign, it has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence, combining detailed product photography with computer-generated design, to create stunning images.Thanks to this technology, the impact in terms of carbon emissions and waste was minimal and, furthermore, it allowed them to make their material supplier - the sheep themselves - central to their campaign without causing them unnecessary stress but safeguarding their well-being.