Advertisers Say They Do Not Plan to Return to X After Musk’s Comments
Elon Musk, the owner of X, criticized advertisers with
expletives on Wednesday at The New York Times’s Deal Book Summit.
Elon Musk took a defiant stance against advertisers on
Wednesday at the DealBook Summit, telling them, “Don’t advertise,” and using an
expletive to dismiss the brands who stopped spending on his social media
platform.
By Kate
Conger and Tiffany Hsu
Reporting
from San Francisco
Nov. 30,
2023
Advertisers
said on Thursday that they did not plan to reopen their wallets anytime soon
with X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, after its owner,
Elon Musk, insulted brands using an expletive and told them not to spend on the
platform.
At least
half a dozen marketing agencies said the brands they represent were standing
firm against advertising on X, while others said they had advised advertisers
to stop posting anything on the platform. Some temporary spending pauses that
advertisers have enacted in recent weeks against X are likely to turn into
permanent freezes, they added, with Mr. Musk’s comments giving them no
incentive to return.
Advertisers
are “not coming back” to X, said Lou Paskalis, the founder and chief executive
of AJL Advisory, a marketing consultancy. “There is no advertising value that
would offset the reputational risk of going back on the platform.”
Mr. Musk
has repeatedly criticized and alienated advertisers since buying Twitter last
year. At one point, he threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” against
advertisers who paused their spending because they were concerned about his
plans to loosen content moderation rules on X.
The chief technology officer of X used foul
language to slam brands that had pulled their advertising after his post on the
social media platform.
Just tell me what happened. You write this tweet
that says that this is the actual truth. People read that tweet — “Yes.” — and
they say, ”Elon Musk is an antisemite.“ That he is riling up this base. You’re
hearing it from, as I said, the White House. You’re hearing it from Jewish
groups all over. And I’m an American Jew. It wasn’t just the people who had
that view. It was actually people who really are antisemites who said, ”Oh, my
goodness — go, go, Elon, this is fabulous.“ And that actually was the thing
that really, really set me back. And I said to myself, ”What’s going on here?“
And I want to know how you felt about that in that moment when you saw all of
this happening. Yeah, well, first of all, I did clarify almost immediately what
I meant. I would say that was, you know, if I could go back and say I should in
retrospect, not have replied to that particular person and I should have
written in greater length as to what I meant. I did subsequently clarify it in
replies, but those clarifications were ignored by the media. And essentially I
handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and arguably to those who are
antisemitic too. And for that, I’m quite sorry — that is not, that was not my
intention. But there’s a public perception that was part of a apology tour, if
you will, that this had been said online. There was all of the criticism. There
was advertisers leaving. We talked to Bob Iger. I hope they stop. ”You hope —“
Don’t advertise. ”You don’t want them to advertise?“ No. ”What do you mean?“ If
someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with
money. Go [expletive] yourself.
Elon Musk
Apologizes for Endorsing Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory
The
situation was compounded on Wednesday when Mr. Musk made incendiary comments
against advertisers at the DealBook Summit in New York. In a wide-ranging
interview at the event, Mr. Musk apologized for the antisemitic post, calling
it “one of the most foolish” he had ever published, but also said that
advertisers were trying to “blackmail” him. He singled out Bob A. Iger,
Disney’s chief executive, who also attended the DealBook Summit.
“Don’t
advertise,” Mr. Musk then said, using an expletive multiple times to emphasize
his point.
Hours
later, Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, tried to mitigate the damage. In a
post on X, she shifted attention to Mr. Musk’s apology for associating himself
with antisemitism and appealed to advertisers to return.
“X is
enabling an information independence that is uncomfortable for some people,”
Ms. Yaccarino wrote. “X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of
Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and here to
welcome you.”
A
representative for X did not respond to a request for comment.
Ruben
Schreurs, the chief strategy officer at Ebiquity, a marketing and media
consulting firm, said Ms. Yaccarino appeared to be trying to get brands to
stand with X’s views on free speech. But advertisers were unlikely to step in
to sponsor the social media platform’s goals, he said.
“It doesn’t
resonate at all,” he said, adding that the spending pauses seemed to be
“turning into a termination of advertising on X.” Short of a leadership change
or a change in control at the company, he added, advertisers were unlikely to
consider returning to the platform.
Other
marketers are recommending that brands abandon X altogether. Tom Hespos, a
longtime media planning executive who runs a consulting firm, Abydos Media, and
works with clients in health care and other industries with up to $50 million
media budgets, said that he gave his first formal recommendation to a client on
Thursday that they not only stop spending on X but back away from posting
there.
“You can’t
with a good conscience make a recommendation to a client that they continue to
be a part of” what Mr. Musk has done on X, Mr. Hespos said.
Mr. Musk’s
rejection of advertisers highlights the challenges facing Ms. Yaccarino, an
advertising industry veteran, as she tries to stabilize X’s revenue. The last
three months of the year have historically been lucrative for X, as major
advertisers typically launch campaigns for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and
holiday shopping.
Among the
brands that have been big spenders on X and that have recently halted their
campaigns are Apple, Disney and IBM. Other brands have remained, including the
National Football League and The New York Times’s sports site, The Athletic.
At the
DealBook event on Wednesday, Mr. Musk acknowledged that an extended advertiser
boycott could bankrupt X. But the public would blame the failure on brands, he
said, not on him.
“I will
certainly not pander,” he said.
Mr. Musk’s
dismissiveness of advertiser concerns has caused brands to view him as a risky
partner, said Steve Boehler, the founder of the marketing management
consultancy Mercer Island Group.
Mr. Musk’s
“comments suggest an outrageous amount of uncertainty regarding his platform,
how he will partner with advertisers and whether he even cares about what
advertisers think,” said Mr. Boehler, who works with clients who spend $10
million to $500 million on advertising annually. “This is also personal,” he
added. “Businesses are simply full of people, and people like to be treated
well, respected and dealt with with dignity.”
Ryan Mac
contributed reporting.
Tiffany Hsu reports on misinformation and disinformation and its origins, movement and consequences. She has been a journalist for more than two decades.
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