New ads from LCV, NRDC push Republicans and Big Oil
Plus, a look at Coca-Cola’s pro-plastic ads featuring Bill Nye
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, and 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!
TL;DR:
The League of Conservation Voters and the NRDC Action Fund launched new digital ad campaigns putting pressure on Republicans and the oil industry.
As the American Petroleum Institute continues pushing ads conflating fossil fuel supply with national security, pro-plastic groups like the American Chemistry Council and The Coca-Cola Company are running new digital ads supporting robust recycling programs.
Democrat midterm candidates ran new digital ads that highlighted the importance of water infrastructure and pushed for lowering gas taxes.
Meanwhile, GOP candidates ran anti-gas tax ads, attempting to pressure Democrats on higher gas prices.
Elsewhere on social media, climate disinfo tried to channel grievances about high gas prices toward environmental groups and Democrats.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
We found that four climate groups significantly grew their Meta political ad spends last week from the previous week. First, Earthjustice continues to reach younger audiences via Instagram ads. The group’s creative includes artistic ads promoting climate justice, in addition to a climate scorecard for the Biden administration. We also found that Power For Tomorrow is running new video ads targeting mostly young women in Virginia warning that deregulating the Commonwealth’s energy grid (like in Texas) would lead to a catastrophe similar to last year’s fatal freeze.
NRDC and the NRDC Action Fund also stepped up their Meta advertising last week. They recently launched a national ad campaign raising awareness about how energy-intensive the cryptocurrency industry is. They’re also running campaigns in support of legislation in Illinois, state climate action in Pennsylvania, and a national push against Big Oil.
When it comes to polluters advertising on Meta platforms, it looks like BP has ended its greenwashing campaign after spending about $300k in two weeks. However, the American Petroleum Institute continues to roll out ads conflating national security with our fossil fuel supply, and the American Chemistry Council spent another $35k on Meta ads calling for recycling reform. In a similar campaign, Coca-Cola launched a new ad campaign on the platform featuring a stop-motion plastic Bill Nye who discusses how plastic recycling works. Their campaign overwhelmingly targets young adults, who are likely to trust Nye after growing up with Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Overall, here’s a look at how weekly spending on Meta political ads by climate groups and polluters compares week-over-week so far this year:
Google + YouTube
We identified six climate and energy groups that ran political ads on Google platforms last week, according to the Google Transparency Report. Here’s how their spending breaks down:
Most notable among these are the ads from LCV, which accuse Reps. Michelle Steel, Maria Salazar, Carlos Gimenez, and Mike Garcia of blocking clean energy investments in order to prop up an oil industry beholden to autocrats like Vladimir Putin - you can check out one of the ads below. We’ll also note that NRDC’s YouTube ads promoting the Biden administration’s efforts to replace lead pipes have been targeting Chicago, Philadelphia, and Richmond, Va., for about a month now.
Snapchat
The only ads about climate change, clean energy, or conservation in recent weeks once again came from Patagonia. They spent $600 on a campaign advocating for the protection of the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. Overall, here are the top spenders on Snapchat ads related to climate change, clean energy, and conservation so far this year:
Climate & energy ads in the 2022 elections
Out of the biggest races in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, we picked up a few new and ongoing Facebook ad campaigns from top candidates:
AZ-SEN: Mark Kelly spent over $25k touting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: “I’m working with both parties to repair Arizona’s transportation and water systems. It’s more important now than ever.”
GA-SEN: Raphael Warnock is again running ads calling to suspend the gas tax: “I'm working to keep more money in the pockets of hardworking Georgians!”
GA-SEN: Despite that, Herschel Walker is attacking Warnock for being “worried about things like “what is a woman,” when he SHOULD be focused on fighting inflation, fixing the supply chain, and figuring out a way to get these gas prices DOWN.”
NC-SEN: Ted Budd boosted a Fox News article with a familiar conspiracy theory: “It's time to shine a light on how corrupt green energy groups undermine American energy dominance, destroy jobs, and weaken our country on the world stage. Enough is enough!”
NC-SEN: The outside group supporting Republican Marjorie Eastman, Restore Common Sense USA, echoed Big Oil talking points: “Had enough of career politicians? NC has a better choice for the Senate, who will help to restore our energy independence. Her name is Marjorie Eastman and she’s a conservative, a soldier, and a mother.”
PA-GOV: Republican Lou Barletta boosted a story from the Chambersburg Public Opinion where he argues that Pennsylvania should “be more like Saudi Arabia on energy,” saying in the ad, “Under Gov. Wolf & Josh Shapiro, PA has become our own worst enemy when it comes to growing our economy and unleashing our God-given natural resources. When it comes to energy, PA can power the world!”
PA-GOV: Bill McSwain has joined the candidates from both parties wanting to reduce gas taxes: “Conservative Outsider Bill McSwain will cut the gas tax in half & restore law and order. A career politician can’t fix this. We need a true conservative as governor.”
PA-SEN: Dave McCormick has launched several new energy-related ads: “I’ll reverse Biden's disastrous agenda by restoring President Trump’s America First policies to grow our economy & establish energy dominance.”
PA-SEN: Mehmet Oz has done the same: “Sign the Petition today if you think President Biden should unleash American Energy TODAY.”
WI-GOV: Kevin Nicholson is the latest of many Republicans trying to channel grievances over higher gas prices: “Joe Biden and Tony Evers are letting gas prices go out of this world! Let us know: how much do you pay?! >>>”
WI-SEN: Ron Johnson launched new video ads: “The Democrats spent trillions we didn’t have, and shut down American energy production, sticking us with the worst inflation in 40 years and the highest gas prices in American history. Senator Ron Johnson is fighting back for us.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
A candidate running for the 15th district of the Los Angeles City Council, which mostly comprises neighborhoods in southern LA, is putting public transit and pollution at the center of his campaign. Bryant Odega just this week launched a significant ad campaign on Meta platforms highlighting how standing up to energy companies, transitioning the city to clean energy, and building a more liveable city would be among his top priorities if elected.
Tracking Climate Disinfo Online
Triplecheck identified approximately 200 tweets with more than 10 retweets and 160 Facebook posts with more than 10 engagements that contained misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment from April 05, 2022, through April 11, 2022. More than four million people were exposed to this content on Twitter during the time period reviewed, a decrease from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 83,000 engagements on Facebook, an increase from last week's exposure levels.
Approximately 75 percent of the people exposed to misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment on Twitter were exposed to one of the following themes:
Environmentalists want high gas prices because it promotes their radical climate agenda;
Climate change is a hoax;
Wind turbines have been found to have killed over 150 eagles;
Climate activists encourage people to deflate the tires of SUVs in wealthy areas.
These narratives were also the focus of approximately 70 percent of the Facebook engagements. You can find the full report here.
Measuring the National Organic Conversation
Overall, the top three Facebook posts mentioning climate change and related terms last week came from The Federalist Rising (188k interactions including nearly 100k shares) Donald Trump Jr. (107.9k interactions and 1.02M video views), and President Joe Biden (42.9k interactions).
Another high-performing post about fossil fuels came from Sen. Dan Sullivan, whose clip of himself lambasting Democrats’ current energy policies at a press conference got 246.5k views on Facebook. At the same time, we found that the hearing that Sullivan criticized itself got a fair amount of engagement. A CNN post about the hearing got 24.8k interactions, and the livestream from CBS News Radio got 18.1k interactions and 159.9k views. We’d also like to note that a post from Ben Shapiro celebrating a West Virginia law that all but forces banks to invest in the state’s fossil fuel industry got 15.2k interactions.
On Instagram, the top three posts mentioning climate change, energy, and related terms came from Leonardo DiCaprio (147.6k interactions), National Geographic (133.9k interactions), and Leonardo DiCaprio (68.3k interactions and 424.9k video views). While these posts are about the looming consequences of the climate crisis, posts about high gas prices continue to proliferate and stoke frustration with the current government, as indicated by a post from an otherwise innocuous meme account waxing nostalgic about the Trump presidency. Additionally, we found that David Harris Jr. is posting videos of Black men committing acts of violence and blaming their behavior on gas prices, for which he in turn blames Joe Biden.
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.