Elon Musk invited advertisers to “go fuck [themselves]” this week in what seemed like corporate self-immolation—but industry experts are split on whether companies will permanently sever their relationships with X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Unfortunately, I think most of us in the marketing and advertising world have kind of short attention spans,” said Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer for North America at the marketing firm Wunderman Thompson.
“People are [often] sort of open-mouth horrified at the latest debacle that’s taking place at X. It gets a ton of… press and everything going on for like 72 hours. And then we move on to the next thing.”
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Musk made his comments on Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook Summit, after spending weeks fending off accusations that he had endorsed—or at least amplified—antisemitic rhetoric on the platform.
On Nov. 15, a user wrote that Jewish people promote a “dialectical hatred against whites,” to which Musk replied, “You have said the actual truth.” The billionaire added that the Anti-Defamation League “unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel.”
At the DealBook summit, Musk expressed regret for his statements, acknowledging that they may have been his most “foolish” ever on the site.
“I should in retrospect not have replied to that one person and should have written in greater length what I meant,” he said. “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. And for that I’m quite sorry, that was not my intention.”
Still, he appeared furious that some companies had paused their spending on the site, including Disney, whose CEO he called out by name. He likened the pullback to advertising “blackmail.”
Disney and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Leesha Anderson, vice president of digital marketing and social media at Outcast, is one insider who thinks Musk has irreparably damaged his relationship with corporate America. “It’s quite shocking… I think for advertisers, this is a wrap for them, “ she said. “Even though advertisers pulled their money over the past year, I think that they were still waiting for X to get its act together. And obviously these two weeks have been almost a confirmation that these advertisers are not looking forward to continuing a relationship with X.”
Some businesses, she noted, had recently contemplated whether to earmark a portion of their 2024 marketing budgets to the platform. The recent developments have made their decision-making easier, she said.
Bamford said that X had struggled to draw advertisers away from competitors for years, well before Musk acquired it, because ads on the site have not converted new customers as effectively as on Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. “When he came in the picture… the ad product didn’t suddenly get better.”
Following the acquisition, prospective advertisers knew they were entering the “Wild West world of speech” and that X couldn’t guarantee brand safety, Bamford continued. Even though the company has some control over whether ads are placed next to contentious content, she said, “When you’ve got the founder of the platform making those types of comments, there’s no facelift.”
“If anything,” she argued, “Musk has become one of the most predictable people on the planet. He’s always going to do something that’s going to offend and be slightly off-kilter. That’s what he does.”
Most companies, she said, were far more alarmed about the accusations of antisemitism than being told to “fuck off.” In fact, Bamford’s industry contacts thought the latter outburst was “kind of funny.”
Not everyone did. On X, the company’s former global head of marketing and partners, Lara Cohen, called Musk’s remarks “an insult” to what her coworkers had built. “We had literally a best in class sales team at Twitter. Even when our product was being out innovated, & other platforms delivered better results and bigger audiences they crushed & saved the company numerous times just [because] advertisers liked them more.”
Rocco Del Greco, founder of communications agency The New York Group, said he advised his clients many months ago to pause spending on X, and he remains concerned about brand safety. “I want to motivate people to buy,” he said. “That’s what marketing is. I don’t want my clients’ messages aligned with anything negative when it comes to a political statement, you know, or something about a war or a conflict in the world. We don’t want to be associated with that.”
For brands that have finally had enough, the new challenge is pulling back spending without landing in Musk’s crosshairs, like Disney.
“I’ve certainly heard that people are taking, let’s call it cautious, quiet steps to pull themselves back,” Bamford said.
