Holding big corporations’ feet to the fire on greenwashing
A roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly, data-driven report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. Here’s what we found:
Toplines:
We spoke with The YEARS Project to hear more about their latest corporate pressure campaign against Citibank, Toyota, and others
United Airlines is running new ads featuring Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, which tout investments in creating low-emission aviation fuel from garbage
Misleading or inaccurate content from climate deniers, including two GOP members of Congress, received relatively high levels of organic engagement on Facebook last week
The League of Conservation Voters is up with new YouTube ads attacking frontline GOP members of Congress for supporting big oil profits and opposing clean energy
Starting this Friday, TikTok will begin enforcing its policies against climate misinformation and point users to authoritative info on climate science
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
Last week, we highlighted The YEARS Project’s ads holding Citibank accountable for their climate commitments. Those ads are actually part of a larger campaign holding several major corporations’ feet to the fire for their pledges and words not matching their deeds.
“A lot of companies have made climate and sustainability pledges and then they just don’t stick to them. It’s our feeling that we need to hold these entities accountable for the pledges and promises they’ve made,” The YEARS Project executive director, Joel Bach, told us. “We can’t think of a better way to do that than launching these massive social and digital campaigns to see if we can move them in the right direction.”
Corporate pressure campaigns have a long history in the movement space and are often effective at shaming major companies to take action on social issues or causes. The YEARS team tells me they’re currently targeting: Toyota, Citibank, HSBC, Shell and RBC — with content on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google — as well as using some influencer engagement strategies. They’re also working in partnership with several other organizations in the space, along with the DCC.
Speaking of corporate climate commitments, another ad campaign we saw last week came from United Airlines, which is touting its investments in creating low-emission aviation fuel that runs on garbage. The Fortune 500 company is using Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch to underscore these plans for garbage-fueled planes.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
The climate or energy-related political advertisers on Google that were archived last week included: League of Conservation Voters ($9,700), CA Energy & Infrastructure ($7,400), Growth Energy ($6,100), Action for the Climate Emergency ($4,400), and Virginia LCV ($2,500)
Here’s a look at the League of Conservation Voters' latest ads, hitting frontline GOP freshmen members of Congress for opposing climate action. The ad ties big oil profits to high gas prices and “MAGA extremism.”
Snapchat 🤳
In addition to some localized ads from Patagonia, the Sierra Club is up on Snapchat with new ads targeting younger users on environmental action.
What’s Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Every week, we conduct a robust keyword search using CrowdTangle for general terms like “climate change,” “global warming,” “fossil fuels,” and over 40 more specific topics (like “electric vehicles,” “gas stoves” and “pipelines”). Here were the 15 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 13,500 public posts on Facebook mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 634,000 interactions.
The most engaged Facebook post mentioning climate or energy issues came from Trending Politics, a fake news site that is part of a far-right “MAGA Mill” network on Facebook. The viral video post shows a climate expert getting grilled by a GOP member of Congress. It was shared over 33,000 times.
Several other top-performing posts last week came from conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who used his page to rail against corporate “woke” ESG policies.
We should note one more anti-climate post that gained traction - this time from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). The far-right firebrand assured her followers that “climate change is totally normal” because “we live on a spinning planet that rotates.”
Meanwhile, here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 6,200 public feed posts on Instagram mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 3.8 million interactions.
The top-performing Instagram post about climate or energy last week surprisingly came from burrito chain Chipotle, which announced a new “all-electric” restaurant design to lower the company’s carbon footprint.
On the denier side of things, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) shared a post asserting that “climate change is not the world-ending emergency climate alarmists claim it to be.”
Testing Spotlight: New Pew Research Summary
To mark Earth Day this weekend, Pew Research released a summary of Americans’ feelings about climate change in eight key charts. Here are the takeaways:
A majority of Americans support the U.S. becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
Americans are reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, but younger adults are more open to it.
The public supports the federal government in incentivizing wind and solar energy production.
Americans see room for multiple actors – including corporations and the federal government – to do more to address the impacts of climate change.
Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart over the last decade in their assessments of the threat posed by climate change.
Climate change is a lower priority for Americans than other national issues.
Perceptions of local climate impacts vary by Americans’ political affiliation and whether they believe that climate change is a serious problem.
Three-quarters of Americans support U.S. participation in international efforts to reduce the effects of climate change.
Weekly Reading
Want to go deeper? Here’s a quick roundup of news from the past week at the intersection of climate, digital strategy, and advocacy.
P.S. Are you signed up for Climate Nexus’ daily newsletter, Hot News? It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to know in the climate and environmental policy space. Subscribe here>>
TikTok to Start Enforcing Climate Change Misinformation Ban (Daily Beast, 4/19)
The 'ninjas' fighting climate change denial on Twitter (BBC, 4/15)
That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed reading this week’s issue, feel free to forward it to a friend or colleague. Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Tips/comments/questions? Email kyle@fwiwmedia.com