Greenpeace UK’s Exxon leak story limited in reach online, but Exxon now on defense
Gulf of Mexico fire drove engagement on story following last week’s leak
On Thursday, July 1st, Greenpeace UK’s journalism outlet, Unearthed, released secretly recorded footage of two ExxonMobil lobbyists admitting that they are, in fact, publicly supporting climate initiatives while privately undermining them in the halls of Congress. The story was given its initial organic lift on Facebook by major progressive pages like The People for Bernie Sanders and Climate Reality.
In the week following the leak, the top 10 most-engaged posts about Exxon on Facebook came from the following pages, and how many interactions each of their posts received:
Overall, the impact of this story on Facebook was relatively low: there were 858 public posts about Exxon from June 29 - July 7th that earned 191k interactions in total. To put that in perspective, there were 2,630 posts about Donald Rumsfeld (who died on the same day that the Exxon story broke) earned 596k interactions.
The story’s reach was initially even more limited on Instagram. On July 1st and 2nd, posts about Exxon only earned 45.2k interactions, but that changed on July 3rd after an oil pipeline ruptured and created a massive well of fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Climate activists, progressive pages, and Democratic lawmakers immediately tied the disaster to now-recorded efforts by Exxon to undermine the transition to clean energy; the top four most-engaged posts about Exxon on Instagram in the past week all used the Gulf fire.
As a result, engagement on posts about Exxon peaked, driving 114.5k interactions in one day, suggesting to us that dramatic imagery of new climate disasters like last week’s Gulf fire may drive further engagement on the Exxon story and others like it on Instagram.
For reference, here’s the top 10 most-engaged posts about Exxon on Instagram from the past week came from the following pages, and how many interactions each of their posts got:
While the current cycle for this story may have closed by this week, we doubt that this story will permanently lose salience online. Unearthed is continuing to publish investigations exploring Exxon’s other insidious lobbying efforts, and Rep. Ro Khanna, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on the Environment, is demanding answers from Exxon and other fossil fuel companies.
For their part, Exxon appears to be on defense online. In the days leading up to the leak, Exxon touted their positions on sustainability. On June 23, they posted about how their CEO discussed “low-carbon technologies for a new energy economy,” at the Qatar Economic Forum, and on June 29, they posted about how they’re “supporting the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement.” Following the leak, they made an extensive effort to distance themselves from the lobbyists in question and then once again claim that they support carbon pricing.
As of this writing, Exxon is no longer running Facebook ads about clean energy or sustainability commitments, as they ended the last such campaign on June 25th. Currently, they’re running ads defending oil and gas by claiming that its production generates “critical” tax revenue and “will play an important role in revitalizing the economy.” These ads are mostly being targeted at young women nationwide, and they’ve spent at least $16k on the campaign.