Advertisers say they have no plans to return to X after Musk’s comments

Advertisers said Thursday they have no plans to reopen their wallets anytime soon at X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, after its owner, Elon Musk, insulted brands with an expletive and told them not to spend on the platform.

At least half a dozen marketing agencies said the brands they represent stood firm against advertising on X, while others said they had advised advertisers to stop posting on the platform. Some temporary spending pauses that advertisers have imposed on X in recent weeks will likely turn into permanent freezes, she added, with Musk’s comments giving them no incentive to return.

Advertisers are “not coming back” to X, says Lou Paskalis, the founder and CEO of AJL Advisory, a marketing consultancy. “There is no advertising value that could offset the reputational risk of returning to the platform.”

Mr Musk has repeatedly criticized and alienated advertisers since buying Twitter last year. At one point he threatened to “thermonuclear name and shameto advertisers who halted spending over concerns about his plans to relax content moderation rules on X.

In recent weeks, more than 200 advertisers had stopped spending on X after Mr Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory and researchers drew attention to examples of ads appearing alongside pro-Nazi posts on the platform. The company, which makes most of its revenue from advertising, risks losing up to $75 million this quarter if brands pull out.

The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday when Mr Musk made inflammatory comments to advertisers at the DealBook Summit in New York. In a wide-ranging interview at the event, Mr Musk apologized for the anti-Semitic post, calling it “one of the silliest” he had ever published, but also said advertisers were trying to “blackmail” him. He mentioned Disney CEO Bob A. Iger, who also attended the DealBook Summit.

“Don’t advertise,” Mr. Musk then said, using an expletive several times to emphasize his point.

Hours later, X CEO Linda Yaccarino tried to limit the damage. In a post on

“X allows for an information independence that is uncomfortable for some people,” Ms. Yaccarino says wrote. “X stands at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street – and the X community is strong 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 consultancy, said Ms Yaccarino appeared to be trying to get brands to endorse X’s positions on freedom of expression. But advertisers were unlikely to step in to sponsor the social media platform’s aims, he said.

“It doesn’t make sense at all,” he said, adding that the spending pauses “seemed to be turning into a freeze on advertising on X.” Without a change in leadership or control at the company, he added, it was unlikely advertisers would consider returning to the platform.

Other marketers recommend that brands abandon X altogether. Tom Hespos, a veteran media planning executive who heads a consulting firm, Abydos Media, and works with clients in healthcare and other industries with media budgets of up to $50 million, said he made his first formal recommendation Thursday to a client that they don’t just stop with spending on X, but also stop posting there.

“You cannot in good conscience make a recommendation to a client that he or she will continue to be part of” what Mr. Musk did on X, Mr. Hespos said.

Mr. Musk’s rejection of advertisers highlights the challenges Ms. Yaccarino, an advertising industry veteran, faces as she tries to stabilize X’s revenues. 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 spending heavily on X 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 sports site The Athletic.

At the DealBook event on Wednesday, Mr Musk acknowledged that a prolonged boycott of advertisers could put X out of business. But the public would blame the failure on brands, he said, not him.

“I certainly won’t give in,” he said.

Musk’s dismissive attitude to advertisers’ concerns has led brands to view him as a high-risk partner, said Steve Boehler, the founder of marketing management consultancy Mercer Island Group.

Mr. Musk’s “comments suggest an outrageous amount of uncertainty about his platform, how he will work with advertisers and whether he even cares what advertisers think,” said Mr. Boehler, who works with clients who make $10 million to $ Spend 500 million on advertising. annual. “This is also personal,” he added. “Businesses are simply full of people, and people want to be treated well, respected and treated with dignity.”

Ryan Mac reporting contributed.