Pro-data center group trying to change opinions in NC with ad campaign

North Carolina Connects, the group behind the ads, has sponsored pro-data center billboards, television, and audio commercials across the state over the past month. The group bought 747 ad spots across all channels, with 189 of them on Fox News and 90 on Spectrum News Raleigh. 

The ads try to counter common critiques of data centers, including increasing demand for energy and their impact on water supply and quality. They also trumpet what they say are the benefits of data centers, including generating jobs and tax revenue that can be used to fund schools, hospitals and local infrastructure. 

The highly-produced ads feature female narrators’ voices over landscapes, neighborhoods, workers at an electrical site, and happy families in their homes, presumably in N.C.

“North Carolina data centers — committed to paying their costs so North Carolina families don’t,” one of the commercials says.  

 North Carolina Connects is an offshoot of America Connects, which backs similar media campaigns in other states.

America Connects started as Virginia Connects in June of 2024, but underwent a name change in February after expanding to other states. The group’s corporate filing in Virginia only lists three people: Chairman Kevin Hughes, President Josh Levi and Treasurer Allison Gilmore.

All three also serve in leadership roles at the Data Center Coalition, a pro-industry lobbying group. Levi is the president and CEO of the organization, Gilmore is the chief operating officer, and Hughes is the treasurer of the board of directors. 

The Data Center Coalition describes itself as a nonprofit organization that advocates for data centers through public outreach and public policy advocacy.

Among its members are Google, Microsoft and CyrusOne — which operate major data centers in North Carolina — and Amazon, which is building a $10 billion data center campus in Richmond County. CyrusOne, which operates a data center near Research Triangle Park, has proposed a $900 million data center in Lee County, despite the opposition of some residents. 

Lee County residents demand pause on NC data center, claiming deception

“Through North Carolina Connects, the industry seeks to better explain the role of data centers to the public — including how they operate, why they are important to our daily lives and the 21st-century economy, as well as information about the industry’s responsible usage of water and its commitment to paying for the energy it uses,” Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, wrote in a statement to NC Newsline.

Mary Maclean Asbill, state director of the Southern Environmental Law Center, says she wishes data centers would put their money towards addressing community concerns instead of ads.  

“I would like to see evidence, not just some fanciful tale told on a television ad,” she told NC Newsline. “I would like to see — and communities would like to see — proof of what are these great jobs you’re talking about, and how did you come up with these numbers?”

State lawmakers could consider proposals to regulate the industry when they return from break July 27.