Advertisers urged to shun Twitter in new blow for Elon Musk
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Advertisers urge Elon Musk to avoid Twitter: Omnicom, which represents 5,000 companies, tells customers to pause promotions on the site
Elon Musk faced the latest setback since his £38bn Twitter takeover when thousands of the world’s biggest brands were warned to avoid the platform.
Advertising giant Omnicom, which represents 5,000 companies including McDonald’s, Apple and Pepsi, told customers to pause promotions on the site.
Cash crisis: Elon Musk (pictured) admitted last week the company is losing £3.4m a day and ‘bankruptcy is not out of the question’
The marketing agency told the companies that advertising on Twitter, where Musk is now chief executive, poses a “serious risk to brand safety,” according to reports.
Since Musk’s acquisition last month, racist comments on Twitter have skyrocketed.
The US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate found that N-word messages in its first week as an owner were three times the 2022 average.
And advertisers fear how the world’s richest man, a self-proclaimed “freedom of speech,” will change the way content is moderated.
Musk admitted last week that the company is losing £3.4 million a day and “bankruptcy is not out of the question” as advertisers have suspended spending.
He has accused “activist groups that pressure advertisers” of “trying to destroy free speech in America.”