Climate Monitor: September 2nd
Climate groups escalate pro-BBB digital ad campaigns as Exxon and opponents launch huge last-minute opposition campaign
Welcome to Climate Monitor, your weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are deploying online to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Google by over a dozen groups and corporations from the past week, as well as their activities on social media. Tell your colleagues to subscribe here!
Here’s what we found:
Best performing Facebook post from DCC members: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Inside the online ad push for climate action in the Build Back Better Agenda
Last week, we reported that several climate groups and their allies either launched or escalated their digital ad campaigns advocating for climate action and clean energy investments in President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Now, it looks like many of these groups’ campaigns are only continuing to grow, especially those of the League of Conservation Voters and NRDC Action Fund (more on those below). EDF Action also stepped up their campaign, increasing their Facebook ad spending from $13,722 the previous week to $21,661 last week with ads pressuring a variety of Democratic senators and representatives in Congress that emphasize the job-creating benefits of clean energy investment.
Overall, here’s a breakdown of how much pro-BBB advertisers spent on Facebook last week:
And, here’s how much these and similar groups spent on political ads on YouTube and Google last week. You may note that new on this list is the NRDC Action Fund, which just last week extended its digital campaign to the platform, but so far they’re only running Google Search ads supporting Rep. Tom Malinowski and YouTube ads supporting Rep. Mike Levin. House Majority Forwardand the Hub Project’s Advancing AZ also started running Google ads last week:
For examples of some of the latest ads these groups are running, read on (or click here).
More Digital advertising data 📈
Overall, here are the top 25 spenders on climate and energy-related Facebook ads last week.
Several major climate groups grew their Facebook ad spending from the previous week to last week, such as the groups we listed above as well as the Environmental Defense Fund and Potential Energy Coalition’s Science Moms. Overall, these and about 30 other climate, clean energy, and environmental groups spent $569,824 on Facebook ads last week, compared to $432,011 the previous week.
Chief among these big spenders on the platform is LCV, which is continuing to use their ads to support various Democratic representatives in the House using a new flight of ads (primarily targeted at women in the Members’ respective areas) that have really distilled the key green points of the “Build Back Better plan” right in the copy:
The Build Back Better plan will:
1. Create clean energy jobs 👩🏭
2. Help lower utility bills 💡
3. Take on climate change 🌎
It's a win for our economy and our kids' future.
The NRDC Action Fund also sharply grew their Facebook ad campaign, using the ads to go to bat for Reps. Mike Levin and Katie Porter of California, and now Malinowski of New Jersey. In their ads advocating for these representatives and for the American Jobs Plan (or Build Back Better, depending on the ad), they emphasize cleaning up pollution, clean energy and transportation, and creating jobs.
On the other side, ExxonMobil spent an enormous amount on Facebook ads last week - over $300,000 dollars - on familiar ads that implicitly argue against the Build Back Better agenda with copy like, “Our economy is recovering, but still vulnerable! Raising taxes on American businesses could hurt millions of American workers and stifle corporate investment and competitiveness.” Additionally, the Washington Post reported today on the numerous corporations spending millions of dollars to derail the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill at the heart of the Build Back Better agenda.
Google and YouTube
LCV continues to be a major spender on Google and YouTube ads as well, having spent $88,400 - the most they have ever spent on the platform since May 2018 - on the platform last week on geotargeted ads that are very similar to their Facebook ads above.
Their NH-focused campaign with Priorities is still ongoing, as is the Civilian Climate Corps campaign from Evergreen Action. NRDC Action Fund has launched a new arm of their BBB campaign supporting Reps. Malinowski and Levin, spending $3,900 on the platform last week.
Snapchat
There were no new Snapchat campaigns among climate groups last week except for a pair of small campaigns - totalling $644 so far - advocating for Native lands and protecting sharks from the shark fin trade.
Overall, here are the top spenders on climate ads on Snapchat so far this year:
Who’s driving the online conversation on climate change?
Last week on social media, stories and posts about climate change and clean energy got significantly fewer engagements on Facebook than the previous week. It appears that the decline in engagement may be due to the fact that there were fewer viral stories; during the week of August 15th, stories about historic rainfall in Greenland and a fed up teacher in Utah railing against climate deniers to her students each got over 100k Facebook interactions. Last week, however, the most-engaged story, from Smithsonian Magazine, about the climatological benefits of reforesting, got just 45.4k interactions.
The most-engaged Facebook posts about climate change and energy last week came from prominent left-wing influencers like Robert Reich, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and The Democratic Coalition which all regularly use Facebook to push for climate action and assert it as a central focus of the Democratic agenda.
We saw a similar trend on both Instagram and Twitter. The most-engaged posts on those platforms came from left-wing and media accounts with huge followings - like Sanders, Molly Jong Fast, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Brian Schatz, and Alex Padilla- either pushing for climate action as a Democratic priority or reporting on the immediate impacts of climate change. The most engaged Instagram post actually came from Katy Perry, who also used her platform to urge their followers to vote no in the upcoming recall election, with climate action as a central stake. Also, an explainer from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about the true costs of fossil fuels, shared by NowThis, got 40k interactions and over 650k views.
Bonus: Right-wing media attempted to push Taliban + climate skepticism controversy
A Taliban official last week gave American right-wingers an opportunity to tie furor against the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to climate skepticism after he suggested that the group, seeking recognition from the international community, allegedly wants to contribute to the fight against climate change. After an initial report from Newsweek, outlets like Breitbart tried pushing a bizarre mini-controversy that attempted to connect audiences’ distrust of the Taliban to their distrust of climate science.
Once the story broke, right-wing media in the U.S. seized on the opportunity to drive outrage clicks to their sites. Breitbart, the Washington Examiner, Watts Up with That, Newsbusters, RedState, the Washington Free Beacon, and other similarly provocative outlets all posted stories about the Taliban’s move within a couple days of its announcement. According to data from NewsWhip, all of these stories garnered a total of 51,920 interactions on Facebook, with Breitbart’s story getting the most engagement at 15,129 interactions.
Naturally, it appears that Breitbart et al’s audiences - not to mention their writers - are extremely skeptical about the Taliban’s new position, and it looks like some are connecting that skepticism to the disbelief they already feel about climate change and the Biden administration.
This incredulity that the right-wing media is fostering in the wake of this story doesn’t end there, however; they’re also using this angle to criticize traditional media. Newsweek, which broke the story in the first place, was lambasted by right-wing media for that very act, accusing the relatively mainstream outlet of “celebrating” the Taliban’s move.
On top of going after Newsweek for merely reporting on the Taliban’s position, these same right-wing outlets also attacked CBS News - and CBS climate reporter Cara Korte in particular - for covering the Taliban’s attempts to capitalize on climate change’s destabilizing effects.
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, head to climatemonitor.substack.com to see these updates in real time as we publish them throughout the week!
And if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to ClimateMonitor@DCC.org.