Musk woos ad industry and backtracks on 'f**k yourself'

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk has launched a charm offensive to the ad industry by playing down last year’s comments that advertisers could “go f**k yourself”, insisting he did not mean the “whole industry” but just those brands who had boycotted the platform due to what he called “censorship”.

Speaking to WPP chief executive Mark Read at Cannes Lions 2024, the controversial billionaire said: “In some cases, there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship. And at the end of the day, if you’re forced to make a choice between censorship and money or free speech and losing money, we’re going to pick the second – we’re going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money, which is, I think, the right moral decision.”

He added: “Advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands. That’s totally cool. But what is not cool is insisting that there can be no content that they disagree with on the platform.”

Musk’s ownership of Twitter did not start well. Having bought the business in the autumn of 2022 for $44bn, he laid off nearly half of all staff, started charging users for blue verification checks, rebanded it as X and slashed content moderation.

Just a fortnight after the deal went through the social media giant was hit by a major advertising boycott, a celebrity exodus, a class action lawsuit from former employees – and even possible bankruptcy.

In fact, the writing was on the wall within hours of the deal, with General Motors, General Mills, Mondelez International and Volkswagen AG all pausing their advertising on the platform seemingly even before the ink was dry.

They were followed swiftly by advertising group IPG, whose clients include American Express, ExxonMobil, JustEat, Mattel and Spotify.

Meanwhile, WPP-owned Group M advised its clients – including Colgate-Palmolive, Ford, Google, L’Oreal, LVMH, Nestle and Uber – that the site was a “high risk” media buy.

While some big advertisers have since returned to the platform, the business is still in a battle to bring in revenue.

Speaking yesterday, Musk claimed: “Every third-party reviewer has given us an A+ on brand safety. If you’re trying to reach senior decision-makers, if you want to reach the most influential people in the world – not just social media influencers, but [people] actually running companies, running countries – and intellectuals of the world … the X platform is by far the best.”

Musk added that X has invested significantly in improving ad targeting to ensure that campaigns are more effective. It is also investing in improved ad relevance. “We are very focused on having ads be shown to people who find the ad interesting,” Musk insisted.

“The usefulness of advertising varies dramatically. If you’re showing an ad for a product or service that you want, when you want it, that is content. If you’re showing an ad for a product that you’d never buy, that’s an ad.”

He continued: “Really, the acid test [is], after you see the ad, do you regret seeing the ad? Do you want those seconds back from your life? Or, do you think, ‘That was actually a really interesting ad?’ Sometimes you’re talking about a product, the ad itself is so entertaining or beautiful that you nonetheless were happy to have seen it.”

Musk also waxed lyrical on the future of AI, insisting “we’re at the most interesting time in history” and predicted a future in which “there’s no shortage of goods and services for anyone” on Earth, adding “I think that is the most likely outcome”.

He also reckons that AI will amplify creativity. “You will have a magic genie situation – if you can think about it, AI can do it,” he claimed.

Musk concluded: “The way I’ve reconciled myself to a negative outcome with AI is that I thought, well, let’s say even if it was the worst-case scenario and we’re going to be annihilated, would I want to be around to see it? And I’m like, probably yes.”