Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last week has resulted in at least six major companies withdrawing their advertising over worries about how he will impact content moderation policies on the platform.
Major companies have pulled out of advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform last week, claiming they are worried about how Musk’s leadership will impact content moderation practices on the app. Big business signaled its collective stoppage of Twitter advertising when Interpublic Group, the ad-buying giant which works with consumer brands such as Unilever, Hyundai, Domino’s Pizza, and Coca Cola, suggested this week that its clients halt advertising on the platform.
While this list is expected to grow, here are the companies currently pausing their ads on Elon Musk’s platform.
General Mills
Breitbart News previously reported that General Mills confirmed on Thursday that it will be pausing advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover of the firm. Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokesperson for General Mills, told CNN in a statement: “We have paused advertising on Twitter. As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend.”
Wait, you're saying I can pay $8/month not to get served lame ads from General Mills, Audi, and Pfizer? Sign me up!
— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) November 3, 2022
Audi
Audi said in a statement: “We have currently paused paid support on Twitter and will continue to evaluate the situation.”
Pull your ads then delete your Twitter account! Show us how serious you are! 😏
— Karmen LaTuya (@LatuyaK) November 4, 2022
Pfizer
Pfizer announced that it is pausing ads on the platform, a move met by widespread derision on the platform.
Pfizer suspended their ads on Twitter after Elon Musk takeover. Maybe they were worried about their tweets getting fact checked?
— Pamela Hensley (@PamelaHensley22) November 3, 2022
Any platform without @pfizer ads is a win-win for everyone.
— Joel Hemingway ✝️🇺🇸 (@joelthemingway) November 5, 2022
Mondelez
Mondelez, the company behind Oreo cookies and many other consumer brands, also announced that they are pausing ads on the platform.
On Thursday, Mondelēz, a top 20 advertiser on Twitter at about $25 million in ad spend a year, paused ads globally on Twitter, according to people familiar with the move. https://t.co/DGzrwUqIe0
— Ad Age (@adage) November 5, 2022
General Motors
Last week, Detroit-based General Motors said it would stop advertising on Twitter, citing the need to “understand the direction of the platform.” GM said in a statement that it is currently “engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership” and “as is the 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.”
Question @GM why didn’t you remove your ads from Twitter in September when you received an email from Twitter telling you that you paid to potentially run ads on child sexual abuse material imagery?
Is @elonmusk worse than child sexual abuse material?
— Eliza (@elizableu) October 29, 2022
Volkswagen
Volkswagen, one of the largest car makers in the world, has also reportedly halted advertising on the platform.
JUST IN – Volkswagen, founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party, tells brands to pause ads on Twitter because of Elon Musk's takeover.https://t.co/dLOmtERTjZ@disclosetv
— Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) November 4, 2022
Elon Musk responded to what he described as a “Massive drop” in advertising revenue for Twitter, saying: “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
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