New York gas stove fight plays out in digital ads
A roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on social media platforms, as well as what’s trending on social media. Here’s what we found:
Toplines:
Things are heating up in New York’s gas stove battle. Advertisers on both sides are running Facebook ads to reach voters.
A new group is running Facebook ads in support of offshore wind power in Maryland.
The opaquely named “Coalition for American Jobs” is targeting vulnerable Democratic Senators with YouTube ads to support permitting reform efforts.
Environmental advocates on social media continued to criticize President Biden’s decision to authorize the Willow Project in Alaska last week.
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
The battle over gas stoves in New York is getting hot, as campaigns on both sides launched new ads over proposed climate-friendly legislation last week. A coalition opposing the plan called New Yorkers for Affordable Energy (website) has spent $25,000 running this ad tying the proposal to “rising costs.” They’re targeting New Yorkers 35 and older. A similar opposition campaign comes from Smarter NY Energy.
On the other side, Better Buildings New York (website), a coalition that aims to end the use of fossil fuels in buildings, has spent $35,000 over the past month on these ads supporting the legislation:
Another pro-climate advertiser focused on a local fight last week was Counterspark, a clean energy group. They are currently running a campaign to support offshore wind power in Maryland, in addition to collecting petition signatures in support of the POWER Act.
…And lastly, our friends at Yale Climate Connections launched a new wave of Facebook ads last week promoting articles on some of the lesser-known effects of climate change:
Google & YouTube 🎞️
A group called Coalition for American Jobs is blanketing Ohio, Montana, and Pennsylvania – three states with vulnerable Democratic Senators up for re-election next year –with these video ads calling on the White House to “cut the red tape” on infrastructure and energy projects. The group spent $8,700 last week.
Other climate or energy-related advertisers on Google platforms last week: Maine Affordable Energy ($8,400), Evergreen Collaborative ($3,300), and California Energy and Infrastructure Labor Management Cooperation Trust ($2,600)
Snapchat 🤳
There were no major new climate or energy-related advertisers on Snapchat last week.
Streaming & elsewhere
A group called East Palestine Justice advertised on Roku devices last week, as did Maine Affordable Energy.
The Center for Climate Integrity launched new ads across Microsoft’s Xandr digital ad network attacking oil company greed. Other advertisers on Microsoft include Maine Energy Progress (view ads), Natural Allies (ad here), and Natural Resources Defense Council (ad here)
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 30 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 12,000 public posts on Facebook mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 683,000 interactions. Many of the top posts were about the Biden administration’s decision to approve the Willow Project, which would allow new arctic drilling in Alaska.
Conservative evangelical Franklin Graham had the top-performing post in the climate and energy space last week, praising the Biden administration’s decision to allow drilling via the Willow Project. Graham possesses an enormous megaphone on Facebook – his page has over 10 million followers.
Other top posts came from Earthjustice criticizing the Willow decision and from liberal mega-page Occupy Democrats mocking Florida for environmental “chickens coming home to roost.”
Meanwhile, here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 5,400 public posts on Instagram mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 5 million interactions.
The post with the most interactions came from @theshaderoom, which shared news of a leak at a nuclear plant in Minnesota. Other top posts from @savethereef, @karmagawa, @reductress, and @feminist criticized President Biden for his administration’s approval of the Willow Project.
A few conservative or anti-climate posts also received moderate engagement this week – this one from Breitbart continues to push the narrative that President Biden is going to ban gas stoves nationwide.
Lastly, on climate TikTok this week, climate activists continued to share content about Biden’s approval of the Willow Project. This video, featuring polar bears and penguins, received over 11 million views.
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>>
The one UN Climate Report graphic you need to see (AXIOS, 3/22)
TikTok overhauls its community guidelines, adds new policies on AI and climate misinformation (Tech Crunch, 3/21)
The gas stove wars are far from over (VOX, 3/21)
The IPCC makes it clear: fossil fuels must go (Heated, 3/21)
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