30,000 and Counting — The Roundup Campaign That Proved Facebook Was Built for Mass Torts
Background
For decades, Roundup, the popular weedkiller manufactured by Monsanto (later acquired by Bayer), was marketed as safe. But as lawsuits piled up linking glyphosate — the active ingredient — to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other blood cancers, the tide began to turn.
Lawsuits were filed. Scientific evidence mounted. And yet, no major national settlement came — year after year.
That’s where Jacob Malherbe, Mass Tort Ad Agency, and a powerful alliance with Intakedesk and Howard Kastner came in.“We thought it would settle every year. It just didn’t. But we never stopped.” — Jacob Malherbe
Strategy: The Power of Patience, Partnerships, and Platform
This campaign wasn’t just about running ads — it was about building an ecosystem:
- Advertising (Mass Tort Ad Agency): Generating qualified leads through smart, creative, high-budget campaigns.
- Intake (Intakedesk): Masters in converting leads with care and precision into viable claimants.
- Partnership (Howard Kastner): A long-term collaborator who shared the vision and stuck with the campaign for over five years.
Over the course of the campaign:
- $50 million+ was spent on Facebook ads.
- 30,000 individuals suffering from blood cancers were signed and supported.
- Campaigns were continuously refined to reach those most in need.
The Facebook Factor: Built for Mass Torts
What made this campaign truly unique was the realization of Facebook’s original promise — not just as a social platform, but as a hyper-intelligent matchmaker between real people and real help.
“What I saw with Roundup is why I came to Facebook in the first place. No platform knows more about us — our interests, our pain points, our needs.” — Jacob Malherbe
Key advantages:
- Algorithmic Targeting: Facebook learned what a Roundup mass tort client looked like — their demographics, interests, behavior.
- Lookalike Audiences: The platform helped scale exponentially by finding others just like them.
- Precision and Efficiency: Years of data refinement meant higher quality leads at lower cost — the longer the campaign ran, the smarter it got.
Creative That Converts
No algorithm works without powerful content. What stopped the scroll and started the journey?
- Emotive copy that addressed health fears with empathy.
- Striking visuals — of gardens, gloves, hospital beds — that instantly connected product use to pain.
- Video stories that mirrored real lives of victims.
Facebook, when combined with Jacob’s storytelling and targeting expertise, became the ultimate mass tort engine.
Results
- 30,000 blood cancer victims reached and signed over multiple years.
- One of the longest-running and largest single-tort Facebook campaigns in legal advertising history.
- Built a blueprint for persistent, data-optimized tort marketing that can be replicated for future mass injury cases.
- And — as of today — the case still isn’t over. But the support system is strong, and thousands of clients now have the representation they deserve.
Reflection
“Sometimes we work for years with no guarantee. But with the right partners and the right platform, you can keep showing up for people who need help — and you can do it at scale.” — Jacob Malherbe
Conclusion
The Roundup campaign stands as a testament to long-term vision, cross-functional collaboration, and the unmatched potential of Meta’s platform in legal advocacy. It showed the world that Facebook isn’t just for connection — it’s for justice at scale.