One of the most notable changes with X (formerly Twitter) around Elon Musk’s takeover of the company has been in advertiser response. And that’s had a lot of sports dimensions. Specifically, last fall, all of ESPN/ABC parent Disney, NBC parent Comcast, CBS parent Paramount Global, and Fox Sports put their X advertising on pause around discussions of corporate ads appearing next to racist and/or antisemitic posts, joining many non-sports companies in doing so.
That’s led to pushback from X. On Tuesday, the company filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers, specifically naming companies CVS, Orsted, Mars and Unilever as well. And X owner Elon Musk posted about that, quote-tweeting an open letter from X CEO Linda Vaccarino to advertisers and saying ‘Now this is war”:
We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war https://t.co/elgT62uDtF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024
Yaccarino (who’s been under a lot of fire lately, especially around a 53 percent Q2 revenue decline) also put out a video around this. There, she lobbied “users like you, people of all backgrounds and opinions.” And she said “You deserve an open platform where your views can be expressed without restriction and without fear”:
A Message to X Users pic.twitter.com/6bZOYPhWVa
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) August 6, 2024
The thing is, while “express whatever views you want without restriction!” may sound nice, it causes problems when those views are highly problematic. That was the case with the racist and antisemitic posts on X last fall that sports and non-sports advertising was appearing next to, prompting those pauses and boycotts. (And, interestingly enough, Musk’s response at the time was telling advertisers “Don’t advertise” and “Go f*** yourself.”)
Not everyone abandoned X arond this. The NFL in particular noted “concerns,” but still stuck with the company. But the toxic content on the platform, and the decision to feature ads next to that, alienated many advertisers. And that’s now led to this X lawsuit.
However, the company’s approach to these advertisers leaving drew quite the roasting. That was particularly true with Yaccarino’s video in particular. Here’s some of that (language warning):
What happens when you fire all your PR people?
The CEO makes a video suggesting with a straight face (and lots of hand gestures) that its customers are being harmed by there being less ads. https://t.co/BrPKMkp6qI
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) August 6, 2024
Masterful gambit, sir. https://t.co/x0KBRgoyl8 pic.twitter.com/d9IvFyRQhe
— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) August 6, 2024
Comedy is back on twitter. https://t.co/VjZ8VCrWHx
— DaveHolmes.bsky.social (@DaveHolmes) August 6, 2024
I also think it should be illegal not to financially support my business https://t.co/MeyaxjksTT
— Barry Petchesky (@barry) August 6, 2024
I fucking love it when the ultra wealthy strain to make their problems seem like they’re my problems.
Also, get a better media coach https://t.co/2zWhTIDxhj pic.twitter.com/j0Q6oeNsxR
— A Jason Tabrys (@jtabrys) August 6, 2024
We’ll see what comes of this in terms of X and advertising, especially sports advertising. But their lawsuit, and the messaging they’re putting out around it, is far from convincing to many. It’s somewhat ironic that the “free speech” platform is upset at advertisers exercising their own speech by withdrawing ads.
[Linda Yaccarino on X/Twitter]
