Advocates lean on cowboys and soccer moms in clean energy ads
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:
The American Petroleum Institute is targeting swing states with video ads on Facebook demanding fossil fuel production be “made in America”
A new campaign called “Cowboys for Liberty” is defending clean energy in Texas via Facebook ads
Georgia Conservation Voters is running a new Snapchat ad campaign advocating for climate solutions in the 2023 Farm Bill
Several clean energy or climate-focused Facebook posts from the White House’s official accounts received high levels of engagement last week
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
The Potential Energy Coalition, via its “Science Moms” Facebook page, was the top-spending political advertiser on climate and energy issues last week. The pro-climate group ran a wide range of ads - from videos to boosted news articles - about ways to combat pollution and climate change. They’re targeting mostly women in key swing states - GA, NC, PA, AZ, TX, and WI, plus a few others.
On the other side, the American Petroleum Insitute launched a major new campaign targeting a few battleground states (PA, OH, MI, CO, NM, WV) with slick video ads pushing “made in America” fossil fuel messaging.
Last week, we noted how climate advocates are coopting conservative messaging mainstays like “freedom” and “private property rights” in a battle over clean energy in Texas. Another example of that is “Cowboys for Liberty - Texas,” a brand new campaign defending wind and solar energy in the state. The group’s Facebook page was created just two weeks ago on May 9th.
…and in California, the California Climate Accountability Project is running a new ad urging the state legislature to hold the oil and gas industry accountable by requiring the disclosure of corporate emissions and stopping state investments in “dirty” energy.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
Climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week included: Maine Affordable Energy ($1,800), League of Conservation Voters Education Fund ($1,600), and Evergreen Collaborative ($1,000)
LCV’s ads are running on YouTube pushing pro-electric vehicle messaging and continuing to call for stronger pollution standards:
Snapchat 🤳
There was only one new climate-related advertiser on Snapchat last week: The Georgia Conservation Voters. The state LCV affiliate is running a campaign advocating for pro-climate policies to be included in Congress’ must-pass 2023 Farm Bill. Here’s a link to the group’s petition page.
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 15 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 12,000 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 767,000 interactions.
The top-performing post was this one from Bill Gates’ recent trip to Arizona, where he discussed the climate crisis with students. Despite some recent public scandals, Gates continues to have a large and engaged following on social media. On the Right, this post from Greg Abbott praising some anti-clean energy legislation performed well, as did this one from John Stossel discussing “woke ESG” and the “climate cult” with Vivek Ramaswamy.
Several posts from The White House and Vice President Kamala Harris’ pages promoting the administration’s investments in clean energy received moderate levels of engagement.
Meanwhile, here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 6,000 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 5.7 million interactions.
Several of the top-performing posts on Instagram last week used wildlife photography as a way to explain climate change’s impact on the natural world. Those include a few from major pro-climate accounts like @natgeo and @paulnicklen.
There was also a whole genre of “weird news” related climate content that performed well last week. Posts about eating bugs, swapping toilet paper for leaves, and New York City sinking into the ocean received a lot of likes + views.
…and lastly, the most-liked climate-related video on TikTok last week was this one below, which overlays imagery from “The Lorax” with actual footage of environmental degradation. Despite being labeled as “sensitive content,” it has received millions of views and 1.2 million “likes” in 5 days.
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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.
P.S. Are you signed up for Climate Nexus’ daily newsletter, Hot News? It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to know in the climate and environmental policy space. Subscribe here>>
Do humans cause climate change? Even now, only half of Americans say yes. (The Hill, 5/25)
Why we're not calling it "natural gas" anymore (Heated, 5/18)
A fake climate change theory is going viral on TikTok after Joe Rogan talked about it (The Verge, 5/24)
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 kyle@fwiwmedia.com