![]() ![]() Looking at oil and gas’ 25 biggest Facebook ad spenders, the analysis found that each segment of the industry was pushing a slightly different message. “So it sort of plays into that very politically motivated effort.” Interestingly, the advertisements tended to target men more than women. “In terms of the distribution regionally of the ads, we saw that they were focused towards states with really high levels of production of oil and gas but also swing states,” Holder said. The peak of oil companies’ ad blitz occurred in 2010, when Congress was mulling over a national cap-and-trade program (that ultimately didn’t pass).Īs part of InfluenceMap’s analysis, researchers broke down last year’s Facebook ads based on the location of targeted users. Spending shot up around 1997, when countries were considering the Kyoto Protocol, an attempt to set legally binding cuts on greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s five largest oil companies spent $3.6 billion on promotional ads from 1986 to 2015. Those 2020 spending patterns follow a long-time trend: The scale of the oil and gas industry’s advertising efforts has historically tracked with politicians’ interest in taking action on the climate crisis. ![]() For example, spending jumped dramatically last summer when then-presidential candidate Joe Biden released his climate plan, and stayed high until after the November election. Last year, companies’ Facebook ad spending soared when it looked like the federal government might do something to address rising emissions. The oil industry’s more recent ads use subtler messages than outright climate denial to undermine action on global warming, such as portraying natural gas as a green fuel source and arguing that decarbonization would make energy unaffordable. ![]() Some climate groups have decided to fight fire with fire, recently funneling $1 million directly into anti-oil advertisements. In recent years, climate advocates have honed in on ways to counter these tactics - launching a campaign demanding that PR firms drop fossil fuel clients, for instance, or trolling oil companies on social media. Oil companies have long sought the help of public relations whizzes to burnish their reputations, painting themselves as environmental champions, plastering their logos all over science museums and jazz festivals, and even hiring Instagram influencers to tout the merits of gas stoves. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. “The oil and gas industry is engaging in this really strategic campaign using social media and the tools available, particularly these targeting tools on Facebook, to reach a really broad audience pretty easily,” said Faye Holder, program manager at InfluenceMap. Just over half of this spending came from one company, ExxonMobil. platform, according to an analysis by the think tank InfluenceMap. Last year, the oil and gas industry spent at least $9.6 million on ads on Facebook’s U.S. Why, for instance, are oil companies buying prime space in your social media feed to prattle on about “innovative” climate solutions and visions of a “lower-carbon future”?Ī new report makes the case that the oil and gas industry is trying to sell you a story - one that casts these companies as paragons of sustainability and seeks to delay policies that would address climate change. But other times, the motive behind a sponsored post is less transparent. Online advertisers are always trying to sell you something, and in the case of slip-on sneakers or leather handbags, that something is pretty clear. ![]()
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