Pro-climate group runs unique Facebook ad experiment
Here’s your roundup of the climate conversation on social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly digest of 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:
Ad spending and organic engagement on climate and energy-related topics was way down last week, likely due to a quieter-than-normal news cycle and the holiday season
In what must be some type of advertising experiment, the progressive group Windward Fund is running both pro-climate and anti-climate ads on Facebook
Conservative posts on Facebook continued to attack liberal hypocrisy - this time around private jet use - to undermine pro-climate messages
A shady network of energy giants has been quietly funding local news coverage in the deep South, according to an NPR investigation
Facebook + Instagram Advertising
Here were the top 20 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
Facebook and Instagram spending from the fossil fuel industry and its affiliates remained mostly unchanged since last week - with the American Chemistry Council, Enbridge, and the American Petroleum Institute leading this group.
One notable new advertiser last week was The Windward Fund, a pro-environmental group with ties to major progressive entities. The organization spent around $48,000 last week running ads from two different pages: “Americans for a Prosperous Future” and “Americans for a Safe Future.”
We found the group is simultaneously running ads that are in direct conflict with each other. Ads from one page are urging support for the creation of new wind farms, against coal production, and in favor of solar energy. On the other page, the group is running ads claiming solar panels are toxic, coal jobs are necessary, and wind farms are “destroying our way of life.”
It's very likely these ads are part of some digital experiment to reach different audiences and test messages against each other. The pro-climate ads had around $40,000 behind them, while the group only spent around $6,000 promoting the anti-climate messages.
Google + YouTube Advertising
There were no major climate-related electoral ad campaigns on Google or YouTube last week.
Snapchat Advertising
There were only a handful of new Snapchat ad campaigns launched last week. Here’s a snapshot of climate and energy-related Snapchat advertising year to date.
Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Here were the top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
The top-performing Facebook post about climate and energy-related terms came from Heather Cox Richardson, who led her daily post with a note about the Keystone pipeline rupture in Kansas. Other highly-engaged posts came from Donald Trump Jr., who denied climate change outright, and Tucker Carlson, who attacked Pete Buttigieg for using a private jet:
Rounding out the top 10, this pair of posts from Joe Biden also received moderate levels of engagement - touting the administration's historic climate action in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Meanwhile, on Instagram, here were the top-performing feed posts (excludes Reels & stories) related to climate and energy last week:
Just like last week, engagement on Instagram posts related to climate and energy centered on the Department of Energy’s fusion breakthrough.
Big on TikTok
What was big on #ClimateTikTok last week?
One big trend recently has consisted of explainer videos breaking down so-called “Climate Havens” - places that supposedly will be less impacted by the effects of a changing climate. Here’s an example:
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Some other, more organized climate-related TikTok campaigns we’ve seen come from Action for the Climate Emergency, including #BlameBigOil, #TakingADeepDive into the IRA, and #BreakUpWithGas
Weekly Reading
In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics (NPR, 12/19)
That’s it for this week! Believe it or not, this is the last Climate Monitor of 2022. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Thursday, January 5th.
Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Tips/comments/questions? Email kyle@fwiwmedia.com