Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social network X, formerly known as Twittertried to “put a stop to it” in his relationship with the advertising industry, which has been affected since last year, when he told advertisers to “fuck off” (pardon me for having to replicate his vocabulary *laughs*) after some had withdrawn its ads on X due to Musk’s support for an anti-Semitic post.
The billionaire’s revolt was greater with the CEO of DisneyBob Iger, who was one of the main names to stop advertising spending on the platform.
During an interview with WPP CEO Mark Read at the festival Cannes Lions 2024, the billionaire, in a moderate tone, said that he did not refer to all advertisers when he uttered the profanity. According to him, in some cases advertisers were actually insisting on censorship.
“At the end of the day…if you are forced to make a choice between censorship and money or freedom of speech and losing money, let’s choose the latter! Let’s support free speech instead of agreeing to be censored for money, which is, I think, the morally correct decision,” Musk said.
He believes that brands have the full right to choose where they will make their media investments, but that it is not interesting for them to insist that there cannot be any type of content that they do not agree with on the platform.
Despite Musk’s current appeasing speech, the measures he has implemented on the social network since its acquisition in 2022 have been crucial to the drop in advertisers on X.
Elon drastically changed the dynamics of the platform, laying off employees, introducing the paid verification badge, and reducing content moderation. All of these actions resulted in an increase in misinformation and hate speech on the social network. As a result, almost half of the platform’s 100 largest advertisers have withdrawn, according to Media Matters. To recover this loss, given that the former Twitter’s total revenue depended 90% on advertising, the billionaire launched the premium subscription, which was not very well received by users.
Even though some advertisers have returned to the platform, the breach of trust of some companies in X and the damage caused by Musk’s speeches and measures is still great.
During his conversation with WPP’s CEO this Wednesday, the owner of X addressed advertisers’ concerns, suggesting that his social network could be a valuable media investment for advertisers looking to connect with relevant names.
“If you’re trying to reach senior decision makers, if you want to reach the most influential people in the world, not just social media influencers, but the people who actually run the world’s companies, countries, and intellectuals… Platform X is by far the best” , said Musk.
The billionaire continued saying that his social network is seeking to be increasingly effective in distributing ads according to the ideal target audience. According to him, ads that reach the right audience at the ideal time are better seen.
“The usefulness of advertising varies drastically. If you’re showing an ad for a product or service you want, when you want it, that’s content. If you are showing an ad for a product that you would never buy, that is an ad”, commented the owner of the former Twitter.
As attractive as these words are to advertisers, Musk’s publications on his official profile on X continue to alienate some brands. In this sense, Read questioned whether Elon regrets any post he has ever made.
The controversial billionaire responded that not every post he makes is well received and that, from time to time, he “shoots himself in the foot”.
*With information from The Drum
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