Climate groups spend big on digital ads to sell the Inflation Reduction Act
Plus, new fossil fuel industry ads call EV push a “government mandate”
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies polluters and climate-action groups use to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on social media platforms, as well as what’s trending on social media. Tell your colleagues to subscribe here!
TL;DR:
At least half a dozen climate and environmental groups are now running digital ads touting the clean energy investments of the Inflation Reduction Act. We estimate that these groups have spent at least $270k on these ads since the law was enacted on August 19th, driving climate groups’ biggest ever digital ad spending week so far this year.
Fossil fuel groups also had their biggest digital ad spending week so far this year as BP America spent nearly $180k on Meta ads promoting the company’s sustainability plans.
The American Petroleum Institute also had a record week when it comes to digital ads last week, spending over $92k on ads calling for oil leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, calling fossil fuel production a national security issue, and attacking the new electric vehicle push as a “government mandate.”
California’s 2035 gas-powered car ban drove significant but mostly negative engagement across social media platforms last week.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
In last week’s Climate Monitor, we reported that the League of Conservation Voters, NRDC, Climate Power, and Center for American Progress had launched digital ads touting the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) almost immediately after President Joe Biden signed it into law. Now we can report that these groups, along with a few others, have spent over $170k on pro-IRA Meta ads since the law was enacted. The biggest among these has been NRDC, which spent $84k last week almost entirely on pro-IRA Meta ads supporting Democrats up for re-election. All told, last week was a record week of digital ad spending for climate groups as the above four and dozens of others spent $518k on Meta ads alone. And according to Climate Power, there’s still more to come from them and LCV as Election Day nears.
New climate groups advertising on this front include BlueGreen Alliance and the Wilderness Society Action Fund, both of which made record investments in Meta ads last week, spending $33k and $7k respectively. Like other groups, BGA is using its ads to support dozens of incumbent Democrats, saying the IRA “will deliver good union jobs, reduce energy and health care costs, and fight #ClimateChange.” The Wilderness Society Action Fund used its IRA ads to support Nevada’s and Colorado’s Democratic senators. Both groups’ target audiences lean younger.
While these groups are spending six figures on national digital ad campaigns to sell the clean energy benefits of the IRA to voters, we’ve also been keeping an eye on smaller, unrelated digital ad campaigns from other climate groups. NextGen America, for instance, has spent over $20k on video ads thanking dozens of California state lawmakers for “committing $54 billion to fight climate change.” As expected for NextGen, these ads overwhelmingly target Californians aged 18 - 34. Additionally, Gas Leaks Action has spent over $25k targeting Arizona, Indiana, and Nevada with comedic video ads laying down some basic info about methane pollution.
When it comes to fossil fuel groups themselves, we also saw a significant uptick in their Meta ad spending - dropping $433k, about a 25% increase over the previous week - but very little of it had to do with the IRA. The biggest driver of this growth can be attributed to BP America, which spent $265k over the past two weeks on a new greenwashing ad campaign that they ultimately terminated on August 28th. Another big spender last week was the American Petroleum Institute, which spent a yearlong-high of $92k on Meta ads on three separate ad campaigns. These 1) connect fossil fuel production to “national security”, 2) call on the Biden administration to “end the leasing ban” in the Gulf of Mexico, and 3) argue that government “mandates” to switch to electric vehicles “equal government overreach on our vehicles & fuels.”
Finally, we’ll note that Voices for Cooperative Power, a lobbying group that represents rural electric cooperatives, spent $8k on new Facebook page growth ads last week that echo right-wing talking points about energy (i.e. “Electric co-ops exist to serve local members. Don’t let new energy policies prioritize big utility demands over our rural needs.” and “Washington D.C. policymakers don't live here. Why do they control our energy future?”).
Google + YouTube
LCV and NRDC continued their big digital ad push supporting vulnerable House Democrats with pro-clean energy messaging following the enactment of the IRA. They’ve spent a cumulative $106k on these ads in the past two weeks.
Overall, here’s how much these groups spent on Google political ads last week:
Snapchat
There were no new or ongoing political ad campaigns concerning climate change or energy on Snapchat. Overall, here’s how much groups have invested in the platform so far this year:
Climate & Energy Ads in the 2022 Elections
We identified a few digital ad campaigns about climate change and energy from battleground midterm campaigns across the country.
CO-Gov: Jared Polis’ re-election campaign highlighted his climate priorities: “Re-electing Governor Polis means: 🍃 cleaner air 🚰 cleaner water ♻️ 100% green energy”
GA-Sen: Herschel Walker is running a vague new ad attacking Raphael Warnock, saying the senator’s vote “against increasing domestic energy production is a vote against easing the burden on Georgia's struggling families. At the end of the day, #WashingtonWarnock has done more for Joe Biden's anti-energy agenda than Georgians.”
MN-Gov: Republican Scott Jensen launched a new ad campaign promoting his platform: “Dr. Scott Jensen and former NFL Star Matt Birk will restore Minnesota! It's time to focus on good jobs, lower taxes, and energy independence!”
OR-04: Democrat Val Hoyle is running a video ad against GOP candidate Alek Skarlatos: “With his extremist views denying climate change, defunding education, and opposing the federal minimum wage, Alek Skarlatos is the wrong choice to represent us in Congress. Seriously.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District in central California launched last week a new bilingual PSA campaign to reduce air pollution in the region. They spent $550 on these video ads last week, and they read as follows:
“Together, we can get more electric and hybrid vehicles on the road. Together, we can avoid idling our cars. Together, we can improve our public health. It’s up to all of us to improve our air. By working together, we’re making it better.”
What’s trending organically?
Last week, the top Facebook post mentioning climate change, energy, or related terms came from online car news outlet Jalopnik, which got nearly 70k interactions on their article about California’s decision to ban gas cars by 2035. As we’ve seen with other recent EV posts with car-enthusiast audiences, most of the engagement is negative; 50k of the post’s interactions were “Haha” or “Angry” reactions or disparaging or skepitcal comments, some with thousands of likes.
We also saw cynicism drive significant engagement on posts about declining gas prices. A post from Bloomberg simply stating how long prices have been declining got 46k interactions, and here too we found that a large majority of that engagement came from “Haha” reactions and skeptical comments. Many of these shrug off the news because gas prices are still higher than they “should” be, while many others chalk it up to Democrats lowering prices to improve their midterm election prospects. One right-wing Facebook blogger named Frank Bojazi went as far as to make his own post about the same Bloomberg headline, saying, “they are STILL UP OVERALL so we’re not celebrating until it’s back in the low $2 area.” His post got 33k interactions.
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Facebook breaks down:
On Instagram, the most engaged post about climate or energy came from Jason Mamoa, who called on “global leaders to negotiate an ambitious, future-proof, international, legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.” Other cultural icons that used their Instagram to advocate for clean energy and climate action were Coldplay, which apparently helped create a fully rechargeable “show battery” to power their concerts with clean energy, and of course, Leonardo DiCaprio, who drew attention to legal action by young European climate activists.
While the news about California’s gas car ban drove significant negative engagement on relevant Facebook posts, we didn’t see a similar trend on Instagram. The Shade Room made a largely positive post about the news to its 27 million followers, and their reaction wasn’t viscerally negative, but commenters largely lamented how expensive EVs are. Case in point, a comment that got 20.3k likes read, “If you see me in my 1998 Honda Civic in 2035 mins [sic] ya business.”
Finally, we’ll note that Pakistan’s catastrophic floods didn’t drive significant engagement on Instagram last week. The most engaged post we found about the floods came from earthlyeducation and got just 54k interactions. However, we’ll be keeping an eye on the story as accounts of the devastation trickle through Western media.
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Instagram mentioning climate, energy, and related terms breaks down:
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to nick@fwiwmedia.com.