Several companies have now paused their advertising on Twitter over Elon Musk’s purchase of the company, including Pfizer and General Mills.
According to WSJ, some of these companies are worried that Musk will allow ‘objectionable content’ on the platform:
Food company General Mills Inc., Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Volkswagen AG’s Audi are among a growing list of brands that have temporarily paused their Twitter advertising in the wake of the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, according to people familiar with the matter.
Some advertisers are concerned that Mr. Musk could scale back content moderation, which they worry would lead to an increase in objectionable content on the platform. Others are temporarily halting their ads because of the uncertainty at the company as top executives exit and Mr. Musk considers a raft of changes, some of the people said.
Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokeswoman for General Mills, whose brands include Cheerios, Bisquick and Häagen-Dazs, confirmed the company has paused Twitter ads. “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” she said.
A Twitter representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
General Motors Co. paused its spending on the social-media platform last week.
Several ad buyers say they expect the number of brands pausing Twitter ads to rise. The platform isn’t considered a must-buy for many advertisers, with far larger budgets going to tech giants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc., they say, and pausing makes sense during the bumpy transition under Mr. Musk.
Many executives on Madison Avenue are uneasy with the rash of sudden executive departures from Twitter’s advertising sales and marketing units. Among those who have exited are Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, Twitter’s vice president of global client solutions. Those executives helped reassure advertisers that their ad dollars were being spent wisely and appropriately on Twitter.
While digital advertising has been upended by automation, which allows companies to buy and sell advertising using technology, the business is still heavily dependent on the relationships between ad-sales executives and advertisers.
Mr. Musk has been working to reassure advertisers—both publicly and privately—that the platform will remain a safe place for brands. Since tweeting last week that Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape,” the billionaire has participated in several meetings and video calls with some of the world’s largest ad companies and blue-chip advertisers, ad executives said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk participated in a video call with WPP PLC, the world’s largest ad company, and some of its clients such as Coca-Cola Co., Unilever PLC and Google, according to people familiar with the meeting.
During the meeting, Mr. Musk stressed that Twitter would be a safe place for brands, promising to rid the platform of bots and add community-management tools, according to the people.
He also discussed how he was seeking to segment the content on Twitter so users could customize what shows up in their feeds. That would allow people to have the equivalent of a PG-rated version of the platform, Mr. Musk said, and give advertisers the ability to choose which content to be near, according to the people familiar with the meeting.
This is what leftist companies do when someone from the right does something big. If Musk were a diehard leftist, these companies likely wouldn’t give a crap about the purchase.
But because Musk intends to protect people’s voice as much as possible, these companies are suddenly very worried that he’s going to create some kind of hellscape.
I think most people don’t care so much about the other companies but when it comes to Pfizer, I’m pretty sure most people will be relieved not to see their vaccine advertisements.