WPP & SUVs: Driving demand
In seemingly the blink of an eye, SUVs are everywhere. In the UK, SUVs now make up 60% of new vehicle sales. In Europe this figure is 48% and in the US it’s over 80%.
The shift is a disaster for the climate, with SUVs responsible for over 20% of the increase in global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2023. Why are SUVs suddenly so popular?
Advertising has an outsized role to play in so-called “car bloat”, with “the marketing strategies of leading automakers” named as a major factor in rocketing SUV sales. Research clearly shows that SUV advertising drives up demand for SUVs.
Despite the well known adverse impacts of SUVs on global emissions, public health, safety and human rights, the world’s largest advertising firm, WPP, continues to design and distribute SUV advertising campaigns for heavily polluting carmakers including Toyota, Volvo, Ford and BMW.
WPP’s agency Blue State even brought the world the pick up truck emoji, designed as a Ford SUV, in a move described as “ambient advertising”.
SUVs yield higher profit margins than smaller cars, incentivising carmakers to advertise these vehicles. But should advertising agencies take on the brief, to grow sales and push up demand for extra-polluting and unsafe vehicles?
Under international guidelines for corporate responsibility, advertisers including WPP should seek to prevent or mitigate the adverse human rights and environmental impacts it is contributing to through its clients.
In a first of its kind action, Badvertising and Adfree Cities are reporting WPP to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for allegedly breaching these guidelines, including through its work to promote SUVs.
SUV advertising drives SUV demand
Research has found a strong positive association between how often we see SUV adverts, and the likelihood of owning an SUV. An individual who reported being “sometimes" exposed to SUV advertisements was found to be 71% more likely to own an SUV than a standard car, and 250% more likely to own an SUV than no vehicle at all.
In research from Australia, carmakers’ spend on SUV advertising proceeded much faster than consumer spend on SUVs, suggesting advertising led to increasing consumer demand (rather than the other way around).
Advertising data doesn’t come cheap, but occasional insights show how WPP’s marketing work can directly increase sales: “Volvo was able to drive a 35% sales lift after partnering with [WPP’s] Group M’s Modi Media and Innovid to boost engagement through a connected TV ad”.
WPP and SUVs: “Born to Roam”
In research showing that UK SUV ownership is largely concentrated in wealthy urban areas, Badvertising discusses “how advertising persuaded urban families that they needed the equivalent of two-tonne trucks to go shopping”. How has advertising persuaded more than 20 million people worldwide that an SUV meets their needs?
WPP’s ads have promoted SUVs under themes of safety, despite research repeatedly demonstrating that SUVs are far more dangerous for other road users than smaller vehicles; connection to nature, disregarding their outsized harms to the environment; sustainability, despite rocketing SUV-linked emissions, and luxury - creating the ultimate aspirational pull.
SUV ads even tap into family values, using life’s most intimate moments, including pregnancy, to sell vehicles whose emissions are contributing to climate harms that will burden future generations.
In many of WPP’s ads, SUVs are portrayed as unlocking adventure, driving through rugged forests, mountains and even beaches. In others, narratives are more obviously one of dominance over the natural world: for example, VML’s “Conquer the Weekend” for Ford’s Everest SUV. WPP’s The&Partnership’s ad for Toyota, “Born to Roam”, was banned by the UK ad watchdog, who said the ads “presented and condoned the use of vehicles in a manner that disregarded their impact on nature and the environment.”
Above: WPP agency The&Partnership’s ad for Toyota, “Born to Roam”, was banned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority in 2023.
With carmakers increasingly advertising electric models, the rise in electric SUVs has raised concerns over the human rights impacts of mining materials needed for large batteries, such as lithium.
Above: In a 2021 ‘Beyond Zero’ advert for Toyota from WPP agency The&Partnership, the carmaker invites viewers to “imagine a better world where cars emit water, where accidents are avoided…”.
The extra weight of electric SUVs also increases particulate pollution from tyre and brake wear, even to the point of being more polluting than a small petrol or diesel car and makes them more lethal to others in impacts.
Advertising cars undermines climate goals
SUV advertising drastically undermines global climate goals. However, WPP’s advertising for private cars (both fossil fuel powered and electric) is also continuing to shape cultural norms around private car ownership that undermine positive progress towards a cleaner, fairer future.
A behavioural shift from private cars to public transport, cycling and walking is recommended as a key mitigation strategy for reducing global emissions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC also recognises the impacts of advertising on reinforcing behavioural norms and recommends advertising regulation to address this.
The UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) has recommended that for the UK to meet its legally binding emissions reductions, private car travel should be reduced, including through behavioural and societal shifts, with "associated benefits for congestion, air quality and health”.
WPP’s client list includes some of the most polluting automakers in the world. In Australia Toyota, Ford and Mazda are among the “filthy five” carmakers whose emissions are greater than multiple coal mines. Several of WPP’s clients, including Volkswagen, BMW and WPP’s 80-year long partner Ford, are facing legal proceedings for installing devices in their vehicles to cheat regulation. Others have lobbied against stronger climate regulation.
Advertising behemoth WPP knows its power, saying in its 2023 Sustainability Report that: “our greatest contribution to the planet is through our work, which can shift attitudes and change behaviours to build a sustainable future and a more inclusive society.” The company also states clearly that it “Our policy is not to take on any client work, including lobbying, designed to frustrate the objectives of the Paris Agreement.”
Currently, through a large majority of its work, WPP is undermining a necessary shift away from private cars, working for automotive clients to shape and reinforce social norms towards private ownership of polluting and ever larger, heavier vehicles. Its work has direct adverse impacts on climate action, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling out “advertising and PR companies” as “Mad Men fuelling the madness”. We’re asking the OECD to investigate WPP over its(alleged failure to respect international guidelines holding corporations responsible for their impacts on the environment and human rights.
See our FAQs to discover more about our OECD complaint against WPP. Please get in touch if you’d like more information.
