Musk issues “name & shame” threat to companies as more brands pause advertising
Mondelez International, Volkswagen Group, REI, General Motors and General Mills have so far confirmed discontinuation of advertising on the social media platform
As chaos and confusion around the mass lay-offs by Twitter and the future of the social media giant under new boss Elon Musk compounded, Mondelez International, Volkswagen Group and REI joined the list of brands that have paused advertising on the platform. The latest boycotts, meanwhile, have prompted Musk to issue a “name & shame” threat to brands.
“A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues,” tweeted Musk in a reply to a comment on the matter.
Dear @elonmusk:
— ?? Mike Davis ?? (@mrddmia) November 4, 2022
You have nearly 114,000,000 Twitter followers.
Name and shame the advertisers who are succumbing to the advertiser boycotts.
So we can counter-boycott them.
And get your $8 monthly subscription going asap.
So we can start to makeup for lost revenue now. https://t.co/0IAKTnXTes
General Motors and General Mills have already announced that they have discontinued their advertising on the US-based micro-blogging.
Elon Musk took over the company on October 27, 2022 and there has been a lot of uncertainty around the company since then, forcing many advertisers to adopt a wait & watch approach to understand the impact of the takeover. The pause in advertising by brands has come despite Musk, in one of his first statement before the takeover, saying that the company wants to become the most respected platform for the advertisers.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
According to reports, General Motors, in a statement, has said that they are trying to understand the direction in which the social media is company leading to. “We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue,” the company tweeted.
According to another report, outdoor equipment and apparel retailer company REI said it is going to pause tweeting in addition to advertising spending "given the uncertain future of Twitter's ability to moderate harmful content and guarantee brand safety for advertisers."
Similarly, according to media reports, a spokesperson for General Mills said, “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,"
