A pro-climate brand discovered the secret sauce to going viral online
A roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly, data-driven report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. Here’s what we found:
Toplines:
Breaking overnight: A prominent presidential candidate participating in last night’s FOX News debate declared “climate change is a hoax” in front of an audience of millions. It’s a moment receiving quite a bit of engagement on social media platforms - and we’ll have full data on that in next week’s issue
Sustainability brand LIVE KINDLY has figured out how to reach people online and make conversations about climate go viral (all while creating some pretty great content)
The Environmental Defense Fund is pushing back against the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to protect NY and NJ from extreme flooding
NASA’s Goddard Center confirms on Facebook that the extreme heat this summer was caused in some part by climate change
Scientists are leaving Twitter (or “X”) in droves because of Elon Musk
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
The top spenders on digital ads in the climate and energy space continue to be oil giant Shell and the American Chemistry Council (AKA the plastics lobby).
One new and notable climate-related ad campaign this week came from the Environmental Defense Fund. They are running ads on Facebook and Instagram in New York and New Jersey criticizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ $50 billion plan to protect NY and NJ from extreme weather and flooding.
Another new ad campaign comes from Do Good Chicken – a sustainability-focused chicken “agribusiness.” They are running ads on Facebook and Instagram and mostly targeted at the East Coast that tout their carbon-reduced and climate-friendly chicken, as well as ideas for zero-waste meals.
And finally, a group called Defend Clean Jobs Now is running ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram that attack “environmental crusaders” for allegedly standing in the way of clean job creation. The group is presumably weighing in on local debates over whether transmission lines and wind turbines should be halted over their impacts on migratory bird species, for example.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
There were no new and noteworthy climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week.
Snapchat 🤳
On Snapchat, Patagonia began running ads in support of Salmon Beyond Borders to protect Alaska’s rivers.
🔦 Spotlight: A pro-climate brand discovered the secret sauce to going viral online
A few weeks ago, this carousel Instagram post that featured several tweets of people hitting back at big corporations for their anti-climate actions went viral:
This post was captioned “Billionaires shouldn't exist. Comment below if you agree 👇” and it came from the account @livekindly. Now, on the surface, this account – and the brand behind it, LIVE KINDLY– is a luxury eco-friendly shopping experience that offers products in beauty, home, food, and fashion. The brand has locations in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Dubai, as well as an online blog that features articles like “What A Dairy Free Diet Can Do For Your Sex Life” and “Can You Call Yourself Vegan If You Eat Honey?” Overall, Live Kindly gives off a very strong Goop-esque vibe – an ultra-luxury, self-care-based climate activism experience.
Online, however, LIVE KINDLY has cultivated an incredibly strong presence in the climate-related space – a “community of 774k+ planet champions” that pulls no punches when it comes to attacking people who harm the planet. With snarky posts that bash consumerism and billionaires (which is exactly how Gen Z likes their social media), the @livekindly Instagram account has amassed a lot of attention and a huge following. Check out some more examples of their recent popular posts 👇
And their high-performing content isn’t just limited to Instagram. LIVEKINDLY also has a TikTok account that has amassed 125,000+ followers, which they use to post videos to “de-influence’” people from popular trends, products, and brands that harm the environment.
Now, there is undoubtedly some irony at play here. This is a brand that hates capitalist consumerism… but also seems to position itself as a luxury experience based out of some of the world’s most expensive cities.
But we also have to say an absolute hats-off to the LIVE KINDLY social media team. By using some biting Gen Z humor and tapping into the “give no f***s” energy that has permeated the Internet since the COVID-19 crisis, they have created a blueprint for how people can get important topics in the climate conversation to go viral. It’s an impressive feat – and a strategy that other pro-climate brands should definitely consider trying.
What’s Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Every week, we conduct a robust keyword search using CrowdTangle for general terms like “climate change,” “global warming,” “fossil fuels,” and over 40 more specific topics (like “electric vehicles,” “gas stoves” and “pipelines”). Here were the 10 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 12,900 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 967,700 interactions.
Several of the top climate-related posts this week on Facebook were focused on celebrating the one-year anniversary of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – and specifically how it has sped up the US’s transition to a clean energy economy. Several major Democratic players chimed in from President Obama to Robert Reich to Earthjustice.
Meanwhile, over on the Right side of climate-related Facebook, top posts from The Blaze and Charlie Kirk alleged “suspicious circumstances” behind the wildfires in Lahaina, HI and gave further oxygen to the right-wing talking point that the government is creating climate emergencies in an attempt to “prove” that climate change is happening.
And finally, NASA’s Goddard Space Center weighed in with a post that explains how the extreme temperatures this summer are a result of climate change caused by human activities.
Here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 7,500 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 6.9 million interactions.
The top three climate-related posts on Instagram this past week (in order) came from @barackobama about the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, @wealth about NASA’s post confirming that climate change had a role in this summer’s extreme heat, and @misha (of Supernatural fame) about Hurricane Hilary.
Weekly Reading
Want to go deeper? Here’s a quick roundup of news from the past week at the intersection of climate, digital strategy, and advocacy.
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Oil companies are hiring TikTokkers in an attempt to boost their reputation with young people (Washington Post, 8/17)
More than half of scientists surveyed by Nature are leaving Twitter because of Elon Musk (Nature, 8/16)
The Montana climate lawsuit sets an really important legal precedent for other legal climate battles (Grist, 8/18)
That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed reading this week’s issue, feel free to forward it to a friend or colleague.
Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Tips/comments/questions? Email lucy@fwiwmedia.com