Big Oil groups spend big on fear-mongering over the future of personal vehicles
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 pushing back hard against EVs and calling federal support for the technology “government overreach”
Patagonia is using Snapchat ads to call for further regulation of a power plant in Montana
Bernie Sanders is taking Big Oil to task in a 9-minute video on Facebook about Big Oil’s role in causing the record-breaking heat this summer
A trending post on Instagram from @environment declares that we have entered “the era of global boiling”
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
For the past several weeks, American Petroleum Institute and Shell have been the top spenders in the climate and energy space. Given that over $100,000 was spent by each this week, a whole lot of people are seeing these ads – let’s take a look at them.
The American Petroleum Institute – which specifically advertises for its subsidiary Energy Citizens, which is billed as a “movement of people… across the country championing American-made energy and our nation’s energy security” – is running ads nationwide on Facebook and Instagram. These ads attack alleged government overreach in regard to lessening oil production and promoting EVs. The ads are also happening at a time when far-right pundits and conservative media are pushing false narratives that President Biden will soon outlaw their gas-powered vehicles entirely.
Shell is employing a tactic that is pretty common for Big Oil companies who are trying to make themselves more likable: talking about renewable energy and working with cool celebrities and/or companies. They are running several ads on Facebook and Instagram across the nation that highlight their renewable race fuel work with IndyCar.
In addition to these top oil & gas spenders, there were several other new and notable climate-related ads on Facebook and Instagram this week. Maine Energy Progress is getting a jumpstart on running ads for Maine’s special election in November. Mainers will be voting on whether or not they want to establish Pine Tree Power, which would be a state-owned power company that is billed as a way to increase local control of power and reduce outages and other power grid risks. Maine Energy Progress seems to be the hub for the opposition to this ballot initiative, arguing that it would cause Maine to owe billions to Wall Street.
Friends of the Earth is taking on corporate interests and running acquisition ads nationwide that rail against factory farming – and the corporations that utilize it – for alleged abuse of both animals and child workers.
And finally, in a similar vein, the Center for Biological Diversity is running fundraising ads nationwide on Facebook and Instagram that feature fairly graphic descriptions of how pollution and other harmful practices are killing animals.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
We found one new and noteworthy climate or energy advertiser archived by Google last week: the Resources Legacy Fund ($4,600) is continuing to run ads featuring “outdoor voters” calling on President Biden to establish more national monuments in the West.
Snapchat 🤳
There were two new climate-related ads on Snapchat this week from Patagonia about the regulation of the Anaconda power plant in Montana and from Sierra Club about their plushie merch (lol), which funds animal conservation.
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 12,800 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 670,600 interactions.
This week on Facebook, an account called Garrett for Michigan – which seems to be linked to Garrett Soldano, a Republican who ran for Governor in Michigan last year – posted two top-performing videos which attacked John Kerry for his environmental work and bolstered this Far-Right idea that the climate change narrative is a falsity created by political elites. The account itself seems pretty scammy – their website is no longer active and the only live link on their page is to a Far-Right merch shop.
Over on the Left, popular progressive commentator Brian Tyler Cohen used some of the trending news of the day in order to promote a petition from Evergreen Action calling on the EPA to clean up climate pollution. This was part of a major push from advocates to flood the EPA with comments.
And finally, Senator Bernie Sanders posted a widely-viewed video in which he pulled zero punches in attacking Big Oil for its role in the climate crisis. Check it out >>>
Here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 6,400 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 4.6 million interactions.
The top three climate-related Instagram posts (in order) came from @leonardodicaprio about Yasuní National Park, from @bbcnews about a drop in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, and from @environment about “the era of global boiling.” Also a quick shout-out to another top-performing post this week: this wild tweet compilation post from @livekindly.
Spotlight: New ads from Gas Leaks highlight the horrors of methane
Amid growing attention on the climate, health, and safety impacts of natural gas, Gas Leaks is launching a new six-figure advertising campaign in Massachusetts and the Chicago metropolitan area — two geographies at the center of the fight to transition away from fossil fuels and to clean electricity. The campaign, which is titled “Methane Monster” features two parodies of horror movie trailers that highlight the true nature of gas: methane — an explosive, toxic greenhouse gas that is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Check out “Silent but Deadly” and “Release the Fracken” here.
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>>
President Biden is establishing a national monument to preserve tribal land in Arizona (CBS News, 8/8)
Elon Musk is going after a climate group that he believes helped anti-hate researchers “target” Twitter (The Guardian, 8/8)
Journalists have a crucial role in explaining how climate change causes extreme weather – even before all the data is available (Nieman Lab, 8/1)
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