Our CEO Alan Jope is challenging the advertising world to defy the green-washing that’s polluting the industry, and instead use creativity to drive purpose and positive change.
Biography
Alan Jope
Chief Executive Officer
Alan was appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2019. As CEO of Unilever, Alan is responsible for leading one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse consumer goods businesses, with presence in 190 countries, serving 3.4 billion people every day.
At Unilever, our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace. We believe in being a business which takes a stand, and acts, on the big social and environmental issues facing the world. Being a business which does more good for our planet, not just less harm. And being a business which equally and fairly shares our wealth.
We know we’ll be a better, more successful industry by following this path. Citizens are taking to the streets or social media to praise good corporate behaviour and punish bad. The best talent is going to work for companies that are making a positive contribution. Investors, NGOs, media and many others are, quite rightly, holding companies to account, recognising that a healthy business requires a healthy world. And a healthy world requires healthy business.
People are migrating at increasing speed towards purposeful brands. So strongly do we believe this that we are prepared to commit that, in the future, every Unilever brand will be a brand with purpose.
They will all stand up for positive change. They will grow by building movements and taking meaningful action on causes they care about. Brands without a purpose will have no long-term future at Unilever.
But purpose must be authentic
There are too many examples of brands undermining purposeful marketing by launching campaigns which aren’t backing up what their brand says with what their brand does.
Our 28 brands with purpose are growing 69% faster than the rest of our business, delivering 75% of our total turnover growth.
And we are very demanding of those brands. They must communicate a purpose which highlights and addresses an environmental or societal issue. What each of our brands with purpose says must be powerful. And they must also take meaningful long-term action with measurable results, so what each brand does must be purposeful.
It’s not just about ‘make them cry, make them buy’
Green-washing, purpose-washing, cause-washing, woke-washing. It’s beginning to infect our industry. It’s polluting purpose. We’ve all seen it, and we know when we see it.
It’s putting in peril the very thing which offers us the opportunity to help tackle many of the world’s issues and, in doing so, to build our brands.
What’s more, it threatens to further destroy trust in our industry, when it’s already in short supply. Marketing has a titanic trust problem.
Let’s kill the perception that purpose produces creative work that is too worthy, too one-dimensional, always serious. It’s not all about the polar bears on melting ice caps – or the walruses for that matter.
Alan Jope
Creativity can unlock change
Please don’t damage our industry by accepting briefs for brands which don’t walk the talk on purpose. Let’s hold each other to account. If there’s no substance behind what a brand has to say, walk away.
Having a track record of producing anthemic messages with no substance behind them means you won’t work on our brands.
Let’s kill the perception that purpose produces creative work that is too worthy, too one-dimensional, always serious. It’s not all about the polar bears on melting ice caps – or the walruses for that matter.
An invitation to the advertising industry
My invitation to you is to work with us in a new way. Bring us ideas that drive the kind of behavioural and cultural change that’s required to fix the big challenges of our time. Tap into the human truths which sit underneath them. Who wouldn’t be moved to produce fantastic creative ideas which are rooted in resolving these issues? We are all in on purposeful creativity.
Unilever will not be part of false purpose and will not work with those who are. But we will celebrate and reward the brilliant work and power of creativity that can be unlocked by putting issues that matter at the centre of what our brands do and what they say.
We hope you, and your creativity, will join us in leading the adventure. For our business, for your business, and for the walruses too.
Brands taking action for people and the planet grew 69% faster than the rest of our business last year. Now we’re committing that in the future, every Unilever brand will be a brand with purpose.
From the farmers who pick our tea leaves to the shoppers who choose our brands and our employees, we aim to empower women at every point of our value chain. To mark International Women’s Day today, here are just a few examples of how we’re working with them to do so.
