Groups wage digital war over plastics
A roundup of digital tactics + spending on climate issues last week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly digest of digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are deploying online to inform, persuade, and mobilize Americans. We’ve examined political ad spending on platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Google by dozens of entities from the past week, as well as key organic narratives spreading on social media.
TL;DR:
The top spender on climate + energy-related digital ads last week was once again BP America, which is running ads featuring praise of the company from a Democratic state legislator in Washington state.
Overall, digital ad spending on climate and energy issues decreased last week.
That said, dozens of groups are running digital ads on both sides of the aisle regarding plastic pollution.
Republican 2022 House and Senate candidates continue to claim in ads that Democrats “shut down American energy production” in the face of rising gas prices
Organic engagement on climate-related Facebook and Instagram posts was tame last week, but conservative memes continued to highlight (1) liberal hypocrisy on climate and (2) rising gas prices.
Weekly digital ad spending data
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
Overall, here’s a look at how weekly spending on Facebook + Instagram ads by those climate groups and polluters compare week-over-week:
… and here’s climate-related ad spending data on Snapchat, year-to-date:
Deep dive: Groups wage digital war over plastics
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put America’s reliance on fossil fuels for our energy needs at the top of everyone’s minds, a long-simmering fight over another fossil fuel product goes on. So far this year, at least half a dozen groups have run digital ads either denouncing or promoting the use of plastic, particularly using Facebook and Instagram to push their messaging.
Perhaps the most prolific investor in digital ads to combat plastic pollution, specifically in our oceans, is a group called Only One, formerly known as the Blue Sphere Foundation. So far this year, the organization has already spent $171,655 on Facebook and Instagram ads that largely target young adult women in Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington state, Oregon, Ohio, Louisiana, and West Virginia. Their ads largely are trying to raise awareness about just how monstrously polluted our oceans are, as well as advocate for the passage of the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. The bill would significantly overhaul how America produces and handles plastic, particularly single-use plastics, so it’s no wonder that environmental groups like Only One are pushing for its passage.
Other groups that have run digital ads promoting the bill include Sierra Club and Climate Reality, both of which have been using the crisis and the proposed legislation to build their email lists.
However, just like in the oil and gas industry, giants of the plastic industry have also invested significantly in digital ads themselves in order to maintain the status quo of heavy consumption. Among the most explicitly pro-plastic groups running digital ads is the American Chemistry Council, which has spent $40.5k on Facebook and Instagram ads so far this year through two different pro-plastic pages.
Through one page, called American Chemistry, they’ve lobbied against a variety of state-level plastic use reforms all over the country, including in CT, RI, TX, NY, DE, and IL. In all of these, they’ve argued that plastic products are essential for modern life and that any reform would be costly for taxpayers. They’ve even been running a campaign since January that argues that PFAS, the highly durable microplastic, is “essential to our daily lives” or that “Our national security depends on PFAS.”
The ads that the ACC runs through its other main advertising page, “America’s Plastic Makers,” are similarly exalting of the petrochemical product. Their ads appear to try to oppose the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act in a few ways. Primarily, they imply that we should be investing in “advanced recycling” techniques instead of cutting down plastic production in the first place. Others argue that such advancement would keep plastic “out of our environment and in the economy.”
The plastics industry’s emphasis on boosting recycling to undercut efforts to regulate production and consumption is echoed in recent ads from companies that are heavily reliant on single-use plastics, such as S.C. Johnson. The home goods brand has spent nearly $100k on digital ads this year on ads that highlight their efforts to prevent plastic bottles from entering the ocean and working toward “a circular plastic economy,” a concept also promoted in the ACC’s ads. Similarly, Coca-Cola, one of the worst plastic polluters in the world, ran a huge six-figure digital ad campaign around Christmas time last year promoting the recyclability of their soda bottles. Much like the ACC, companies like S.C. Johnson and Coca-Cola are evidently using their huge marketing budgets to place a higher emphasis on plastic recycling so that they face less pressure to use less plastic in the first place.
Climate & energy ads in the 2022 elections
Here’s a roundup of some new climate and energy-related ad campaigns from candidates in the 2022 midterm elections:
VT-SEN: Rep. Peter Welch, running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, is up with new ads mentioning his record as a pro-climate leader and willingness to stand up to “big polluters.”
WI-SEN: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, running in a crowded Democratic primary for Senate, is running ads attacking GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for being a climate denier. Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson’s latest video ad claims that “The Democrats shut down American energy production.”
FL-SEN: Sen. Marco Rubio is running Facebook ads demanding that Pres. Biden “restart” the Keystone Pipeline in order to lower the price of gas.
NV-CD3: Rep. Susie Lee is up with ads highlighting her fight to protect public lands, calling herself “a grassroots organizer fighting to protect Nevada’s public lands and combat climate change.”
NV-CD1: Rep. Dina Titus is running acquisition ads on Facebook asking users to fight back against the threat of climate change, highlighting Nevada’s “worst drought in 1,200 years.”
Trending on social media
Overall, the top three Facebook posts mentioning climate change and related terms last week came from Heather Cox Richardson (64.3k interactions), Heather Cox Richardson (55k interactions), and Turning Point USA (52.6k interactions).
Despite the fact that posts from Green New Deal and Jeff Merkley each got around 30k interactions, we identified several relatively high-performing posts celebrating oil. After TP USA’s reposted meme above, the most-engaged Facebook post about oil came from ForAmerica, which found a way to be pro-oil and transphobic at the same time. Other posts calling for increased domestic oil production came from Georgia congressional candidate Jake Evans, and far-right activists Brigitte Gabriel reposted protectionist, anti-Iran, pro-oil quotes from Reps. Elise Stefanik and Kevin McCarthy.
On Instagram, the top three posts mentioning climate change, energy, and related terms came from theshaderoom (1.55M interactions), justinlaboy (285.9k interactions), and Leonardo diCaprio (171.9k interactions). Memes about gas prices remain ascendant, and right-wing accounts on the platform appear to be picking up on it. Fox News reposted Ice T’s joke with the caption, “Many on social media pointed out they too are victims.” Additionally, the_typical_liberal used a plagiarised version of Ice T’s joke to attack Democrats for their EV push: “What I find incredibly tone deaf is that democrats are telling people “just buy an electric car” when people can’t afford gas… what makes them think they can afford an electric car? On top of that, our electric grid which is so pathetic, can’t even come close to handling majority of Americans owning electric cars.”
Tracking climate misinformation
Tracking provided by VineSight identified approximately 220 tweets with more than 10 retweets and 110 Facebook posts with more than 10 engagements that contained misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment from March 22nd-28th. More than 7M people were exposed to this content on Twitter during the time period reviewed, a decrease from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 19,000 engagements on Facebook, a decrease from last week's exposure levels.
Approximately 90 percent of the people exposed to misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment on Twitter were exposed to one of the following themes:
Dismissing the threat of climate change;
SEC proposal to require companies to disclose climate risks is a back door way to pass the Green New Deal;
President Biden is pushing a New World Order that includes a radical climate agenda.
These narratives were also the focus of approximately 65% of the Facebook engagements identified in our tracking. You can find the full report here>>
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. 🌎 Comments or questions? Email us at nick@fwiwmedia.com.