Updated December 2, 2023, 9:13am ET
top line
Walmart has stopped advertising on X, telling Forbes it has found an alternative platform to engage with customers, and X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk told advertisers to leave the platform in 2016. It became the first major company to announce its withdrawal from the platform following a series of derogatory comments made by the company. Interview with The New York Times on Wednesday.
important facts
Walmart did not mention Musk’s comments as a reason for ending advertising on X, instead saying it would no longer advertise on the platform “because we believe it is easier to reach customers on other platforms.”
A Walmart spokesperson did not tell Bloomberg when the changes would go into effect or what motivated the company’s decision to stop advertising on X.
Walmart joins a growing group of companies including Disney, Sony and IBM that have announced they will stop advertising on X in the wake of anti-Semitic tweets agreed to by Musk more than two weeks ago.
Musk apologized for the tweet during an interview at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, calling it “one of the stupidest things” Musk has ever done on the platform. The move comes after he accused fugitive advertisers of “blackmailing” them. I told them we should pay them and do the “shit” ourselves.
When asked for comment on the move, X executive Joe Benarroch said, “Walmart has an amazing community of over 1 million people on X,” claiming the platform is influential in holiday shopping. did.
Benarroch also insisted that Friday’s announcement does not represent a “recent hiatus,” noting that Walmart has not advertised on X since October.
Points to note
Musk said in an interview at Dealbook Summit that an advertiser boycott could “crush the company,” and if that became a reality, “the world” would join them in condemning the advertisers and destroying the company. He added that he believed he would condemn the bankruptcy.
tangent
Walmart stock is down more than 1% on Friday to $153.73, but the company’s stock has risen more than 7% since the beginning of the year.
Main background
Last month, several major advertisers, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast, NBCUniversal and Lionsgate, began pulling out of X after Musk endorsed anti-Semitic tweets. The left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters for America also released a report last month showing ads for companies like Apple and IBM appearing under pro-Nazi and Holocaust-denying posts, but later X He filed a defamation lawsuit against the organization, accusing the organization of fabricating false information. Desired results that do not reflect the typical user experience. Advertising remains X’s main source of revenue, and it has taken multiple hits since Musk acquired the platform formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion last year. But only a handful of advertisers announced they were pulling back from X in response to Musk’s post. Since Musk’s acquisition, other companies have also moved away from his Company X. 60% reduction Musk acknowledged U.S. advertising revenue in September.
References
Elon Musk says advertisers who left Company X shouldn’t come back (Forbes)
Elon Musk slams anti-Semitic posts, calling them ‘actual truth’ (Forbes)
Correction (12/2): This article has been updated to clarify that Walmart announced Friday that it would remove the ads, but the company did not say when the change took effect.
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