Major ad agencies say that almost all of the big brands have paused or dramatically cut their ad spend on the platform, fearing the wild west created by the changes Musk has made. Twitter advertisers offered buy-one-get-one-free ads in the latest desperate attempt to persuade them to return …
Background
Twitter has changed dramatically under Elon Musk’s ownership. The majority of engineers have either resigned or been fired; virtually the entire exec team responsible for blocking hate speech and disinformation is gone; the CSAM team appears to have been reduced to a single person; account verification without verification was made available for sale; copyright infringement detection failed; the COVID-19 disinformation policy has been abandoned; and previously banned and suspended accounts have been reinstated.
Unsurprisingly, the ensuing chaos led to big brands – including Apple – either completely suspending their advertising on the platform, or reducing it to a minimum. Advertisers fear impersonation and having their ads appear alongside hate speech or wild conspiracy theories.
Twitter offers advertisers BOGO deals
Musk’s first attempts to persuade advertisers to return were… unorthodox. He publicly called out Apple, accusing them of hating free speech, and made phone calls to the CEOs of other former advertisers, reportedly berating them.
The WSJ reports that he is now trying another interesting approach: offering them a buy-one-get-one-free offer on ad spend.
Under the new Twitter plan, advertisers who book at least $500,000 in incremental spending will qualify to have their spending matched with a “100% value add,” up to a $1 million cap, according to the email the Journal viewed. Smaller amounts of spending would qualify for a lower matching amount.
This offer is valid for advertising that runs before the end of the year, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Musk does appear to be taking a more conciliatory approach now. He’s said that Twitter Blue will be paused until the company is able to ensure that verified accounts will actually be verified again (and until he can figure out a way to avoid Apple’s 30% cut), and he met with Apple CEO Tim Cook in an apparent attempt to undo the damage.
Ye/Kayne West again suspended after tweeting swastika
Ye, aka Kayne West, was suspended from Twitter after posting some crazed antisemitic tweets. Musk said that he’d had a quiet word, and reinstated his account. It seems the quiet word didn’t entirely do the trick, as the rapper tweeted a photo of a swastika inside a Star of David.
Ye isn’t the only one who seemingly learned nothing from the previous ban: CNET reports that his new ban will last just… 12 hours.
The absurdity of Musk’s position on “absolute free speech”‘ has been driven home by the fact that high-profile antisemites are welcomed back, while anyone fact-checking Musk is fired for doing so.
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