Koch-backed group uses high gas prices to seed anti-Government sentiment
Also inside: Right-wing Facebook pages slam liberal “hypocrisy” on electric vehicles
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are using 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 what’s trending on social media. Tell your colleagues to subscribe here!
TL;DR:
Science Moms was again the top spender on Meta political ads among climate groups last week, and they also launched a new climate-focused campaign targeting swing states.
The Dairy Farmers of America has spent more than $85,000 this month on a campaign arguing that consumers can help fight climate change by buying dairy products.
Similarly, the American Chemistry Council launched a new campaign this week highlighting how the plastics industry is allegedly working to make plastics more recyclable.
The Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity launched a campaign this month seeking to translate frustration over high gas prices into grassroots support for their conservative policies through a series of in-person events.
The most engaged Facebook post mentioning climate change or energy last week came from Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who mocked the push to switch to EVs as hypocritical.
Meta and Yale University published a huge new report detailing attitudes toward climate change and climate action using responses from over 108k Facebook users from 192 countries.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
Meta (Facebook + Instagram)
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
Last week, spending on Facebook and Instagram ads by climate groups declined by more than 20%, largely because NextGen America and the Yale Campaign for Climate Communications halted their respective campaigns on the platforms. Science Moms was once again the top spender on the platform among climate groups, and they’re now running new, straightforward ads connecting recent heat waves, droughts, and wildfires to climate change. Notably, many of these new ads are targeted at AZ, GA, NC, PA, and WI, all states with competitive statewide elections this year.
And, while Science Moms is using their ads to reach women, the NRDC Action Fund just launched a new pro-clean energy campaign targeting young adults nationwide that connects climate change, high gas prices, and recent wars to Big Oil and calls on Congress and the White House to “invest in a healthy, safer future.”
Among polluters, BP was the biggest spender on Meta political ads last week; the energy giant spent nearly $73k on the platform, the most it’s spent all year, on just one greenwashing ad. We’ve spotted other greenwashing ads on the platform too, including from the Dairy Farmers of America and the American Chemistry Council. DFA, which endorsed Republican Ted Budd for U.S. Senate in North Carolina and has donated $61,657 to Republicans this cycle so far, has been running a campaign through “June Dairy Month” arguing that milk can counter hot food and a warming planet. Additionally, the ACC, through its America’s Plastic Makers page, just launched a new campaign highlighting the work “behind sustainable change in plastics” and pushing the idea that “plastics are essential to our everyday life.”
Finally, we’d also like to note that the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity launched new ads this week using high gas prices to build grassroots support for their policy positions in key states. Their newest ads, targeting GA, OH, NC, PA, WI, AZ, and NH, promote a series of events in some of these states that are “offering grassroots solutions to inflation and the out-of-control government spending that’s causing it.” Following the example set by pro-Herschel Walker group 34N22 in GA, they’re buying gas for drivers at stations near wherever Biden goes, getting local and Fox News coverage for their events, and then turning that free media into more digital ads targeted at key states.
Google + YouTube
We identified six groups that ran Youtube ads mentioning climate change or energy last week. The biggest of these campaigns came from Florida First Project, the Marco Rubio-affiliated group that continues to hit the Tampa area with ads criticizing Val Demings’ and Nancy Pelosi’s environmentalist stances. New campaigns we found this week include a brief Natural Resources Defence Council campaign supporting Rep. Sean Casten in the IL-06 primary this week and an opaque campaign called Energy Engaged using Big Oil talking points to support a Republican candidate for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Overall, here’s how much these groups spent on Google political ads last week:
Snapchat
In the week leading up to this week’s Illinois primary election, LCV Action Fund spent nearly $4k supporting Rep. Casten in IL-06. Otherwise, we identified no new or ongoing campaigns mentioning clean energy, climate change, or the environment last week. Overall, here’s how much has been spent on the platform this year on related ads:
Climate & Energy Ads in the 2022 Elections
Here’s a roundup of notable energy or climate-related advertising from battleground midterm campaigns:
AZ-SEN: A Better Arizona, which is a project of Priorities USA and Majority Forward, launched a series of ads in both English and Spanish earlier this month supporting Mark Kelly. The ads focus on his approach to lower gas prices.
IL-11: Incumbent Democrat Rep. Bill Foster boosted a local story discussing the threat climate change poses to Lake Michigan.
MI-03: In the Republican primary, incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer launched his first Meta ad buy of the cycle: “First in Iraq and now in Congress, Peter has fought for West Michigan and defended our values. He has led efforts to fix our supply chain, secure our border, and make energy more affordable.”
WI-SEN: Mandela Barnes invoked climate action in a series of recent fundraising ads: “This race will be close until the very end and we can't take anything for granted. Because the truth is, everything is riding on this seat – the Senate Democratic majority, abolishing the filibuster, and every issue you care about from voting rights to climate change to health care.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
Over the past couple of weeks, The Years Project has launched two Meta campaigns this month profiling the work of environmental activists of color. The first, primarily targeting Arizona, showcases the work of Native Renewables, a Navajo-based nonprofit to bring solar power to their reservation. The second and more recent campaign targets Louisiana and promotes the work of Rise St. James, a group trying to stop the construction of a plastics plant from being built in a historic Black neighborhood.
Tracking Climate Disinfo Online
This week, Triplecheck found that more than 4 million people were exposed to climate misinformation on Twitter during the time period reviewed, a decrease of 16 million from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 56,000 engagements on Facebook, an increase of 42,000 from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 23,000 engagements on Facebook, a decrease of 33,000 from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 3,400,000 views on Telegram, an increase of 300,000 from last week.
The top narratives and themes are below. You can find the full report here.
Climate change is a hoax, created in order to take power and money away from the people
1,200,000 human accounts exposed on Twitter
Minimal Facebook engagement identified
Minimal Telegram engagement identified
The solution to high gas prices is more drilling and lease sales
2,500,000 human accounts exposed on Twitter
Over 3,400 engagements on Facebook
Minimal Telegram engagement identified
Environmental hypocrites left trash at Glastonbury music festival after Thunberg speech
Minimal Twitter engagement identified
Over 400 engagements on Facebook
Over 310,000 views on Telegram
Inslee warned that the summer would be disastrous because of climate change
Minimal Twitter engagement identified
Over 5,200 engagements on Facebook
Over 50,000 views on Telegram
These narratives were also the focus of approximately 55 percent of the Facebook engagements, as well as approximately 40 percent of Telegram views identified in Triplecheck’s tracking.
What’s trending organically?
Last week, the most engaged Facebook posts mentioning climate change, energy, and related terms came from Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller. He, like other right-wing pages such as Kelli Ward and The Mikey Podcast, shared a meme claiming that Democrats and clean energy advocates are hypocritical: “You are being told to lower your AC usage on hot days to prevent overwhelming the existing electric grid while simultaneously being told to trade in your gas cars for electric vehicles 🤡”. Altogether, these posts earned nearly 450k interactions.
The most engaged Facebook post from a pro-climate action page last week came from Bernie Sanders, who again called for a Big Oil profits windfall tax.
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Facebook breaks down:
There were relatively fewer top-performing Instagram posts that mentioned climate change, clean energy, and related terms last week. The most engaged Instagram post from a pro-climate action page last week was also Sanders’ post above, earning him nearly 170k interactions across platforms for the post. The next most engaged post also came from Sanders, who highlighted corporate greed. Additionally, a post from left-wing page feminist celebrating the elevation of a climate activist to the vice presidency of Colombia following this month’s elections got 58k interactions.
The most engaged Instagram post from a right-wing mentioning climate change or energy came from PragerU, which got just 30k interactions for calling it ironic that Germany closed nuclear plants and may reopen coal plants in the same year.
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Instagram mentioning climate, energy, and related terms breaks down:
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to nick@fwiwmedia.com.