Digital ad spending data for the week of April 26th to May 2nd
Exxon, API remain top spenders, plus new greenwashing ads from Mastercard and NATO
Here are the top 25 spenders on climate-related Facebook ads last week.
The American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil continue to be top spenders on Facebook political ads. API last week started running a new campaign on the platform against HB 3437 in Illinois, which would, among other things, require “workers at high hazard facilities to obtain minimum approved safety training.” These ads were mostly targeted at older men in the state.
API, through their Energy Citizens page, also started running new ads in the past week. These video ads try to argue that while rooftop solar is all well and good, we still need natural gas “so that when the sun is down, you have a backup.” These ads are mostly being targeted at women under 35 in the South, and you can watch the full video in the Facebook Ad Library.
New to Facebook political ads in the past week was MasterCard, which spent just over $16k on three fundraising ads under a page called “Priceless Planet Coalition.” These ads featured straight-to-camera pleas from Camila Cabello and two presumably high-profile golfers to fundraise for their apparent efforts to plant 100 million trees in partnership with the World Resources Institute and Conservation International. These ads were run mostly during Earth Week and were almost exclusively targeted at American adults aged 25-34.
As far as we can tell, climate groups spent under $1,000 on Google ads last week. The Environmental Defense Fund Action Fund PAC spent $700 on banner ads thanking Sens. Stabenow, Braun, Boozman, and Rosen for reintroducing the Growing Climate Solutions Act and “supporting climate-smart agriculture solutions for farmers.” Each of these ads target the senators’ respective states - Michigan, Indiana, Arkansas, and Nevada - but the geotargeting excludes each of the states’ major metropolitan areas.
Relatedly, Moveon.org spent $400 on a YouTube ad touting President Biden’s progressive achievements from his first 100 days, highlighting the U.S. rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and ending the Keystone pipeline within the first few seconds. You can watch the full nearly-three-minute-long spot here.
Here’s how much climate groups have spent so far on Snapchat ads:
Patagonia is the only climate group that ran political ads on Snapchat last week, spending $782 on ads advocating for the preservation of ecosystems across the country, particularly in the western half of the country. Each of these ads seem to be in partnership with on-the-ground conservation groups and target their respective geographies - California, Montana, and Utah - but their ad advocating for the Grand Canyon is targeted nationwide.
Finally, in reviewing the latest Snapchat spending data, we noticed that NATO - yes, that NATO - has spent €530 (about $630) on ads targeting the U.S. claiming that their military training grounds are “an oasis of biodiversity.” You can watch the full 15-second spot here.