A record number of companies plan to cut advertising spending on X next year amid concerns that extreme content on the platform could harm their brands, dealing a further blow to the financial fortunes of Elon Musk’s social media company.
A global survey by market research firm Kantar found that 26% of marketers plan to reduce their spending on X by 2025, the biggest decline on record for any major global advertising platform. Just 4% of marketers overall think X ads provide “brand safety” — that is, certainty that their ads won’t appear next to extreme content — compared with 39% for Google ads, Kantar said in a report released Thursday. CNN contacted X for comment.
“Advertisers have been moving away from X for several years,” Gonca Bubani, global head of thought leadership for media at Kantar, said in a statement, adding that “a turnaround currently seems unlikely.”
“X has changed a lot in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next – it’s hard to feel confident about the safety of your brand in this environment.”
Consumers, on the other hand, feel more positive about ads on X because there are fewer ads than there used to be, according to Kantar.
The findings suggest Musk’s offensive at the world’s biggest annual advertising festival, Cannes Lions, in June has backfired. During an interview with Mark Read, CEO of marketing giant WPP, the billionaire struck a conciliatory tone after telling advertisers last year to “go f*** yourself.”
I agreed that advertisers “have the right to appear next to content they deem compatible with their brands.”
But his attempts to attract advertisers appear to be short-lived. Last month, Musk filed a lawsuit against an influential advertising industry body — whose members include Unilever, Mars and CVS — alleging the group conspired to “boycott” X.
Major brands have pulled out of the platform, formerly known as Twitter, since Musk’s $44 billion acquisition in 2022, amid concerns over content moderation and uncertainty about the platform’s direction.
Musk’s own comments about X have also spooked advertisers. Last November, about a dozen prominent brands — including IBM, Disney and Paramount — suspended advertising spending on X over concerns about anti-Semitism and hate speech, which wasn’t helped by Musk himself endorsing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. He later apologized.
The Kantar report, which was based on interviews with 1,000 senior marketers and 18,000 consumers in more than two dozen countries, also found that X fell outside the top 10 brands in terms of trust and perception of how innovative advertising on the platform is.
Separately, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said earlier this week that the world is not obligated to tolerate Musk’s “anything goes far-right” agenda because of his immense wealth.
Brazil blocked X over the weekend following an order from the Supreme Court because Musk refused to appoint a new legal representative in the country. The move escalated a months-long dispute over what constitutes free speech as Brazil cracks down on the spread of misinformation online.
This content was originally published in Advertisers plan to stampede X in record numbers on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
