Climate Power, Exxon defining climate, energy stakes with Facebook ads after BIF passage
Looking at climate, clean energy, and conservation digital ads and social media trends
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 several 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:
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
Here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Facebook from last week:
Climate Power nearly doubled its spending on Facebook ads last week from the previous week, spending over $109k on ads that pressured Reps. Kurt Schrader, Scott Peters, Ed Case, Stephanie Murphy, and Kathleen Rice to act on climate and pass the Build Back Better Act. This seems to be in coordination with a handful of new ads from LCV which also push Rice, Murphy, Case, and Schrader to pass the BBBA next week. However, most of Climate Power’s investment (Facebook estimates $60k - $70k) went toward four ads organizing folks to text in to demand Congress pass the BBBA. These were mostly targeted at younger men and older women in the DMV, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, now that Congress finally passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure deal, Exxon is back on the board with Facebook ads with rhetoric that’s only slightly different. They’re still using the platform to argue how “taxing American businesses at a higher rate than that of our global competitors could hurt millions of American workers,” but their new ads reflect the reality of the situation. One ad reads, “Your member of Congress has indicated they’ll say NO to tax hikes on American businesses – but the debate isn’t over. Send a “Thank You” and ask that they continue to protect American jobs,” which seem to mostly target older Americans in states like Texas, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Alabama.
At the same time, ConocoPhillips has also started making relatively sizable investments in Facebook political ads again for the first time since August. They spent just over $13k last week on Facebook ads that echo previous rhetoric from the American Petroleum Institute that links fossil fuel production with national security. And speaking API, it looks like they’ve launched a new campaign in Pennsylvania arguing against electric vehicles, saying things like “gas-powered cars are cleaner than ever” and “Pennsylvanians - not the government - should choose what vehicle is best for them.” Both Conoco and API’s ads are overwhelmingly targeted at folks aged 45 and up.
Additionally, here’s how much major groups have spent week-to-week on Facebook ads related to climate, conservation, and energy.
Like on Facebook, LCV is still running political ads on YouTube, but at a remarkably smaller scale than in previous weeks. Last week, they spent just $6,600 on three new, highly geotargeted YouTube ads supporting Sens. Maggie Hassan, Mark Kelly, and Catherine Cortez Masto. Meanwhile, Third Way and The Nature Conservancy spent $42,700 and $6,900, respectively, using YouTube and Google ads to advocate for clean energy investments and climate action. It also looks like Sierra Club spent $1,300 on three ads targeting West Virginia and Connecticut.
Finally, here’s a breakdown of the top spenders on climate, clean energy, and conservation ads on Snapchat so far this year. It looks like the only recent spending in that regard came from Patagonia, which spent $800 on the platform last week organizing folks into the Human Impacts Institute’s Youth Advisory Council or touting the renewed protections of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante.
Climate, clean energy, and conservation ads in next year’s key states
We picked up a few new Facebook ads mentioning climate change, conservation, and/or energy in some of the biggest races Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
FL-SEN: Val Demings’ campaign is once again using her opposition to the filibuster to collect emails: “Mitch McConnell is using the filibuster to stop Democrats from protecting voting rights. To stop Democrats from expanding health care access. To stop any action on climate change. The only way we can break the GOP’s obstruction is by ending the filibuster NOW.”
GA-SEN: Raphael Warnock is once again using Stacey Abrams as a messenger to fundraise along key Democratic priorities: “Mitch McConnell and the GOP need to flip only ONE seat to take back the Senate and roll back our progress on health care, good jobs and climate action. And they’ve zeroed in on Sen. Warnock as their TOP target for defeat.”
NC-SEN: Ted Budd spent a few hundred dollars on a few ads blaming the Biden administration for rising gas prices, as well as a couple of ads featuring a clip of himself with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News falsely criticizing the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, saying, “This isn’t about fixing our roads and bridges - this is about the Left instituting their woke, Socialist agenda.”
PA-GOV: Through most of October, Lou Barletta spent around $200 on an acquisition ad saying, “Extremist Josh Shapiro supports the Radical Left’s Green New Deal that would kill PA jobs! Sign if you agree we must stop their Socialist agenda!”
WI-SEN: Sarah Godlewski is running a new fundraising attack ad against Ron Johnson: “Republican Senator Ron Johnson is a conspiracy theorist, a danger to democracy, a threat to the environment, and a public health menace.”
WI-SEN: Alex Lasry has spent over $1k on a Facebook ad lauding the Biden administration for “for attacking forever chemicals head-on. This is a wide-spread problem affecting communities across Wisconsin.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
We’re keeping an eye on how climate groups and polluters are using digital ads to specifically reach the communities in America that are likely to face the biggest consequences of climate change. Please feel free to point us in the right direction if you think we’re missing something!
LCV Chispa just started running new ads on Facebook and Instagram primarily targeting women aged 25 - 44 in Arizona, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Maryland that outlines the damage caused by oceanic oil spills.
Measuring the National Organic Conversation
The top 3 performing posts mentioning climate or energy issues on Facebook last week came from Franklin Graham (307.2k interactions), Leonardo DiCaprio (166.3k interactions), and Franklin Graham (147.7k interactions). FWIW, the next top posts about climate and related issues came from Franklin Graham (121.4k interactions), Ben Shapiro (119.7k interactions), and Ben Shapiro (104.9k interactions).
Interactions on articles about climate change, conservation, clean energy, and related articles peaked on November 2nd, after President Biden appeared to briefly fall asleep during one of the COP26 talks he attended. Online right-wing media seized on the “SLEEPY JOE” moment, driving at least 362k interactions on Facebook, and the third-most engaged Instagram post about climate last week was Fox News’ video of it, which got over 1.3 million views.
Overall, the top three Instagram posts about climate change and related terms came from President Joe Biden (570.6k interactions), Mark Ruffalo (83.7k interactions), and Fox News (80.7k interactions).
Finally, here were the top three tweets mentioning climate and related terms last week, all of which unsurprisingly reference either the COP26 conference or the final passage of the BIF. We do, however, find it interesting that while BTS drove some highly engaged tweets about climate change in previous weeks, last week the top tweet was driven by BLACKPINK. 🇰🇷 Kpop stans don’t mess around!
TL;DR:
After a week’s pause ExxonMobil is back to running Facebook ads attacking “tax hikes” and touting pipelines. ConocoPhillips and the American Petroleum Institute are also running ads implicitly criticizing Democrats’ clean energy transition agenda.
Climate Monitor was the biggest advocate for the Build Back Better Act among climate groups when it comes to using Facebook ads to push for the economic package.
Right-wing thinking around COP26 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s final passage last week dominated Facebook last week, with Franklin Graham, The Daily Wire, and Fox News leading the charge.
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 nick@fwiwmedia.com.