Advertisers Are Staying Away From X After Musk 'Meltdown'

At the New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday, Elon Musk's message to advertisers who had suspended advertising on X was "Go f--- yourself." "Don't advertise," he added. Advertisers appear to be happy to comply with his second suggestion. The New York Times reports that multiple marketing agencies say the brands they represent—some of them with marketing budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars—don't plan to resume advertising on the platform, especially after Musk's remarks. Some say they have urged advertisers to avoid the platform and to make temporary pauses in advertising permanent. Some have even advised clients to stop posting to X altogether.

Lou Paskalis, founder of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory, tells the Times that advertisers are not going back to X. "There is no advertising value that would offset the reputational risk of going back on the platform," he says. X CEO Linda Yaccarino was in the audience during Musk's remarks and went into "damage control mode" later Wednesday, Variety reports. In a post on X, she said that in the "wide-ranging" interview, Musk offered an apology and an explanation for endorsing an antisemitic post—as well as "an explicit point of view about our position." "X is enabling an information independence that's uncomfortable for some people. We're a platform that allows people to make their own decisions," she said.

Steve Boehler, founder of the Mercer Island marketing consultancy, tells the Times that Musk's remarks suggest there is an "outrageous amount of uncertainty" around X and how it will deal with advertisers. "This is also personal," he says. "Businesses are simply full of people, and people like to be treated well, respected, and dealt with with dignity." Kara Swisher at CNN described Musk's outburst as a "meltdown." "That's not how adults behave," she said. "That's how adult toddlers behave." (More Elon Musk stories.)