Elon Musk To Advertisers: “Go F–k Yourself”
30.11.2023 - 00:47
/ deadline.com
Elon Musk made plain his view of the widespread advertiser withdrawal this month from X, formerly Twitter.
“Don’t advertise,” he urged any marketer with misgivings. “Somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising?! Blackmail me with money? Go f–k yourself. Go. F–k. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
The billionaire tech exec’s remarks came at the beginning of an occasionally awkward, epic-length but frequently compelling session capping the New York Times DealBook Summit.
Moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin noted that Disney has been among the companies pausing ads on X in the wake of Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic post. CEO Bob Iger was among the notable guests earlier in the day at the conference.
“Hey, Bob, if you’re here in the audience,” Musk said. “Sorry, that’s how I feel.”
Sorkin repeatedly asked Musk how the economic model of X/Twitter would be affected by a longer-term advertiser withdrawal. Prior to going private, Twitter as recently as spring 2022 had disclosed that 90% of its revenue came from advertising. U.S. advertising revenue during a five-week span this past spring plunged 59% from the same period in the prior year, according to a report in the Times.
“What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company,” Musk declared. “And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company. It will be documented in great detail.”
Sorkin said to Musk that advertisers would likely push back on that notion and point out that he was the one who prompted their pullback. “Tell it to the judge,” he said. “The judge is the public.”
Asked if the endgame he sees is a large swath of Musk partisans reacting against advertisers that pulled funds from Twitter by