In this current digital age, it can be easy to blindly trust the advertisements that companies promote on social media. With flashy colors and catchy messaging, these corporations often mask the true intentions of their ads through strategic and purposeful design.

Green-washing is a popular example that is currently taking the advertisement world by storm, where advertisement agencies generate ads that falsely promote environmentally friendly products and practices. Using buzzwords and a green color scheme, consumers tend to believe the sustainable messages these companies are falsely putting forward.

Clean Creatives is a company actively working against this phenomenon, as its mission is to hold PR agencies accountable to only work for companies that prioritize sustainability and honesty in their marketing campaigns. Clean Creatives recently hired college ambassadors at universities across the country to help spread this message and raise awareness about greenwashing to students entering the advertisement industry.

We sat down with the two Clean Creatives ambassadors for Penn State, Zoey Joseph and Charlie Hurwitz, to learn more about the company and the pair’s role at University Park. 

Onward State: So, can you start by describing what Clean Creatives is and what its overall mission is as an organization? 

Charlie Hurwitz: Clean Creatives is a movement of advertising and PR professionals who are working on cutting ties with fossil fuel companies. Clean Creatives understands the power that advertising companies hold and how important it is for these companies to stop working for fossil fuel corporations and stop helping them lie to the public in order to make money. So we’re advocates, we’re a community, and we’re fighting for change.

OS: How did you hear about Clean Creatives originally? 

CH: I just found this opportunity by researching climate-related jobs. I’m in the sustainability leadership minor and an advertising major, and it’s been hard to try and branch those two things together. So, when I found this, it was the most perfect opportunity because it was a climate-based campaign specifically tailored to advertisers.

Zoey Joeseph: Personally, for me, I found this opportunity through an email that was sent out to every communications student at Penn State. It included a little blurb about what Clean Creatives was and the position that was available. I was immediately interested and decided to apply.

OS: Why did you decide to join the Clean Creatives organization as an ambassador? 

CH: The importance of educating my peers was big for me in applying for this ambassador position. This is the most rewarding opportunity, not just for myself, but in the sense of doing something outside of myself. I think Clean Creatives will definitely create big systemic change in the future, which is the most important step in battling climate change.

ZJ: I really wanted to be a part of this because I care about the environment, and I’m also an advertising major who was looking for experience within the industry to hone my skills. For me personally, I feel like advertising can be like an “icky” word that not a lot of people like, and I think it has a negative connotation. Clean Creatives is a wonderful movement that really makes sure that advertisement agencies and creative individuals understand the power that they have when they’re creating ads for companies. I was just really excited to work with them to get this message out.

OS: What is your role as an ambassador? 

CH: Zoey and I have started on a smaller scale to spread the message of Clean Creatives, just through word of mouth, hanging up posters, giving out stickers, and talking to our friends about it. We worked up to the classroom presentations and presenting to clubs and different organizations. Our role as an ambassador is to inform the community of what Clean Creatives is, teach students how they can get involved, and then the last step is to highlight the big-picture effects of climate change on our community and world.

OS: How does your major at Penn State enhance or intersect with your ambassador role at Clean Creative? 

ZJ: It’s really cool because I’ve always loved being an advertising major, but I’ve always felt a little bit self-conscious about it in the sense that it has such a negative connotation. So, Clean Creatives really did change my view on the entire industry. I realized that there are so many other people out there who care about the things that I care about and want to do good work for good people. It just gave me a lot of hope for the industry. We also get to design graphics and social media campaigns, so it’s been great to work on those skills.

OS: What does a typical day look like as a Clean Creatives ambassador?

CH: It varies week by week. For example, we have other student ambassadors across the country at Syracuse, Oregon, and UT Austin. So right now, we’re collaborating with them to try to make promotional content. This includes sharing whatever we’re doing with them, seeing what ideas work for them and what we can implement, and vice versa.

ZJ: It depends. I feel that our days have increasingly got more busy. Originally, our days consisted of meeting with each other to discuss plans and maybe creating some social media campaigns or graphics. Now, it’s more focused on planning our bigger events, as well as reaching out to different organizations, clubs, and classrooms to see if we can present to them.

OS: Who does Clean Creatives work with? Is it an organization that recruits clients? 

CH: Clean Creatives is not an advertising agency, so they don’t get clients or work directly with them. It’s more about projecting their message and getting ad agencies to sign a pledge to not work for fossil fuel companies.

OS: So, there is a pledge for advertisement agencies, but can you talk about the Clean Creative student pledge and its significance? 

ZJ: Since our main objective is to get students involved as ambassadors, we promote this student pledge as a way to cultivate a community on campus. When students sign the pledge, it provides a wonderful networking opportunity and gives students access to a Slack page with thousands of sustainable advertising industry experts offering job postings and internship opportunities.

OS: Why is a company like Clean Creatives necessary today? 

CH: Today, more than ever, a company like Clean Creatives is super necessary. I think a lot of companies denounce climate change and claim to be sustainable. They say that we all need to carpool, recycle, and compost more, but those things do not stop climate change completely. But what Clean Creatives is doing is introducing systematic change. They put pressure on the biggest advertising companies in the world to make a change and hold themselves accountable.

ZJ: It’s really important for everyone, no matter the industry, to notice the red flags of greenwashing and try and educate people about that. In 10 years, everyone at Penn State right now will be a part of the industry in some way. So, it’s really important for those who are choosing to work in the PR or advertising industry to understand how to make the right decisions and work with the right companies.

OS: How can interested students get involved? 

ZJ: Sign the student pledge! It takes five seconds and really is helpful in cultivating a community and can be used as a networking tool. In the future, we hope to get a club up and running next year. We just want to work on creating a stronger community of students who really do care about this and who want to help spread the word of Clean Creatives.

For more information regarding Clean Creatives and its mission, click here.