It’s time to #BreakUpWithGas
Plus, a look at online advocacy campaigns from REI and Fat Tire, and local campaigns in CA, NC, NM, and NY
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, 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!
What we found:
The Yale Program on Climate Change Communications spent over $160k on a now-concluded Facebook ad campaign pushing the basic facts of climate change and clean energy.
While car manufacturers spent big on EV Super Bowl ads, we found a couple new Facebook ad campaigns from REI and New Belgium Brewing Co.
A group called Only One is running a Facebook ad campaign pushing for plastic reform ballot initiatives in New York and California, while Help Asheville Bears is using its digital ads to protect regional bears from poaching and traps sold on Amazon.
Several groups, including Action for the Climate Emergency, ProgressNow New Mexico, and EnergyBoom appear to be coordinating on a digital ad campaign that coincides with Valentine’s Day and the anniversary of the Great Texas Freeze, targeting women with ads asking them to Break Up With Gas.
BP is ramping up spending on Facebook ads that argue that it supports methane regulation and the clean energy transition, as well as the Build Back Better Act.
The NRDC Action Fund and the Center for Civic Policy are both running digital ads in New Mexico pushing for the passage of the state’s Clean Future Act.
A federal judge’s rejection of the Biden administration’s “social cost” of carbon emissions made a significant impact on the conversation around climate change and clean energy on social media.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
Spending on Meta political ads by climate groups kept about steady the previous week to last week, and there were several new campaigns we noticed that have caught our eye, especially from corporate pages. First among these came from REI, which has resumed a digital ad campaign from October of last year supporting the Outdoors for All Act. These ads were all targeted at Americans aged 25 to 54. Additionally, we noticed that New Belgium Brewing Co. launched an Instagram ad campaign focused on the Winter Games. The video ads, which highlight how climate change is impacting winter sports in general, point to pointofsnowreturn.com.
And while we’re on the topic of corporate marketing, we’d be remiss not to mention the flood of new EV ads that came with last weekend’s Super Bowl. Most ads about EVs don’t count as political ads to the big social media platforms, so we don’t have much data on them, but the phenomenon was widely reported on news media including CNBC, MarketWatch, TIME, and the Verge. And for those interested, here’s the take from Fox Business.
We’re also seeing several new Meta ad campaigns from climate, clean energy, and conservation groups that launched last week, two of which have a local focus. Help Asheville Bears, a North Carolina-based anti-poaching group, has been spending thousands of dollars every week so far this year on ads trying to pressure Amazon to stop selling bear traps. Additionally, a group called Only One launched a Facebook/Instagram ad campaign last week urging New Yorkers and Californians to support ballot initiatives that would limit single-use plastic production in each state.
At a more national level, we’re seeing even more ads related to the anniversary of the Great Texas Freeze. We reported last week that several groups, including Advanced Energy Works, Power for Tomorrow, and Virginians for Clean Energy have been using last year’s disaster in their ads to advocate for a better grid system, both in and outside of Texas. We can now also report that other groups have joined this campaign, including Action for the Climate Emergency. Much like how ProgressNow New Mexico compared America’s fossil fuel industry to a toxic romantic partner, so too is ACE, but they’re using TikTok videos targeted at teenage girls to make their case: “We're in a toxic relationship with fossil fuels. Tell President Biden and Congress to ban fracking and break up with gas!”
Similarly, Resource Media is also running #breakupwithgas ads on Meta platforms through various pages using classic rom-com memes. EnergyBoom also launched an anniversary campaign pushing the argument that “GA$ FROZE YOU OUT,” highlighting Gov. Greg Abbott’s financial connections to Big Oil, the popularity of grid reform in Texas, and, of course, Sen. Ted Cruz’s infamous retreat to Cancun. Many of these latter ads are primarily targeted at young women in Texas.
Meanwhile, polluters and their allies reduced their spending on Meta political ads last week by 35 percent, with all but one company that we track reducing their spending. BP America has so far spent almost $80k on a new Facebook campaign this year pushing the idea that they “advocate for economy-wide carbon pricing” and support “policies like the climate provisions in #buildbackbetter.” We also know that they’re running similar ads on Twitter. However, according to a recent study in PLOS One, BP unsurprisingly isn’t putting their money where their mouth is. Regardless, their ads appear to be mostly targeted at young men nationwide, but we noticed that their one pro-BBB ad is targeted at young adults in the DMV area.
Google + YouTube
We spotted one new Google ad campaign related to climate action. EDF Action has been running a YouTube + banner ad campaign pushing the Build Back Better Act, arguing that the package will ensure “lower costs, cleaner air, and a brighter future.” They’ve only spent $1,000 on the campaign so far, but since every ad in the campaign just targets SE Washington, DC - home to Capitol Hill - EDF Action doesn’t need to make a big investment for this campaign to have an effective reach.
Snapchat
On top of their Meta ad campaign, Resource Media has also so far spent $849 on ads targeting women aged 18 - 40 in Texas as part of their #breakupwithgas campaign. One ad gives women “5 reasons to break up with gas.” Other ads in the campaign liken the fossil fuel industry to self-centered men one might find on dating apps.
Overall, here are the top spenders on Snapchat ads related to climate change, clean energy, and conservation so far this year:
Climate, clean energy, and conservation ads in this year’s key states
Out of the biggest races Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, we only picked up one ad related to climate change or clean energy:
GA-SEN: Herschel Walker is again using his ads to connect rising prices to the Democratic government, particularly in response to Sen. Raphael Warnock’s recent push to suspend the federal gas tax: “Gas prices are SURGING because of BAD decisions from Democrat politicians like Senator Warnock and President Biden. America cannot depend on other countries for our essential resources, which includes ENERGY. As Georgia’s next U.S. Senator, I’ll FIGHT to make America energy INDEPENDENT again!!
Reaching Frontline Communities
The New Mexico state legislature is currently advancing a bill called the Clean Future Act, which seeks to put the state on the road to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and we’ve seen at least two environmental groups using digital ads to push for its passage. The NRDC Action Fund has spent $10,350 on Facebook and Instagram ads targeting the state, arguing in most of its ads that this legislation “can create good-paying jobs, protect our health, and invest in climate solutions for New Mexico.” They’ve also spent $3,886 on Snap ads as part of this campaign.
At the same time, an Albuquerque-based group called the Center for Civic Policy launched a Meta ad campaign pushing for the Clean Future Act. Their ads also highlight the benefits of the legislation, but they also go a step further by also highlighting the fossil fuel industry’s opposition to the bill.
Tracking Climate Disinfo Online
This week, tracking identified approximately 400 tweets with more than 10 retweets and 190 Facebook posts with more than 10 engagements that contained misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment from February 07, 2022, through February 13, 2022. More than 12 million people were exposed to this content on Twitter during the time period reviewed, an increase over last week's exposure levels. The content also had over 110,000 engagements on Facebook, an increase over last week's exposure levels.
Almost 100 percent of the people exposed to climate-related misinformation or toxic narratives on Twitter were exposed to one of these themes:
Nancy Pelosi is a hypocrite for flying on private jets;
US District Judge James Cain rules that the Biden Administration could not factor in the “social cost of carbon” when issuing clean air rules;
Climate change is a hoax.
These narratives were also the focus of approximately 90 percent of the Facebook engagements identified. Triplecheck’s full report can be found here.
Measuring the National Organic Conversation
The top three Facebook posts mentioning climate change and related terms last week came from Barack Obama (110.7k interactions), President Joe Biden (21.5k interactions), and Forest Web (20k interactions).
It would seem that a Fox News post reporting on a Trump-appointed judge barring President Biden’s carbon tax-esque executive order got a significant amount of engagement because its audience loves owning the libs; a similar Daily Caller post got 12.3k interactions while a similar post by CNN only got about 10k interactions. However, we noticed that a couple posts from Joe Biden about climate change, while low on engagement for him, each got more engagement than any of those right-wing posts: his post touting EV infrastructure investments, above, got over 21k interactions, and a pro-BBB clean energy post from his campaign account got 16.4k interactions.
The top three Instagram posts mentioning climate change from last week came from National Geographic with a tear-jerking assist from wildlife photographer Paul Nicklen (738.6k interactions), NASA (452.9k interactions), and National Geographic (143.6k interactions). We also noticed that Leonardo DiCaprio is using his platform and “Don’t Look Up” to organize for climate legislation and more robust coverage of the emergency by news media; his post got about 128k interactions.
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.