Big brands are spending small sums on X to stay out of Musk’s crosshairs

“It’s whatever amount is enough to stay off the naughty list,” says ad executive.

See full article...

 

[caramelpolice]

Surely if I give the bully my lunch money today, he won't take even more tomorrow.

 

[Kazper]

with, maybe, the exception of small, local businesses, it's probably safe to assume that all companies are comfortable with advertising in a virtual nazi convention, especially if it saves them a bunch of money. and i don't know how feasible it is to boycott every single big name in the market, but one could always try...

I doubt this is correct since Musk is still sueing some companies - so presumably those are holding firm on not returning.

 

[SixDegrees]

Now that this is news, those amounts will no longer be enough.

 

[the cave troll]

I'd argue it's not spinelessness, but rather looking out for the businesses - businesses that employ thousands, whom would be out of their job if fElonia Muskovic decided to go on a rant about them. So it makes sense to do the bare minimum.

Of course as a person I do not agree with this, but I do see the intention behind it. I'm all for boycotting each and every single business Mr CyberGut has his fingers in, but as a business, you often have to take into account the wellbeing of your employees, and the future of the business itself, before you can consider such morality.

The problem, though, is that appeasement is not a good long-term strategy. Sure, this time this business might be to stay out of the crosshairs at a relatively low cost, but that does not mean that this will be the last time it is put in this position, or that the cost will always be so low.

 

[first_citazen]

The most important lesson here:

Companies are liberal when selling you services and products, and conservative when it comes to profit....When those two conflict, we see which side wins nearly every time.

 

[pbat]

It's (un)surprsingly similar to the pizzo paid by Mafia's victims!
It works like this: you pay me and I "protect" you from... bad things happening. (i.e. from my wrath). It's revenue stream, mafia-style.

Just saying.

 

[linnen]

Surely if I give the bully my lunch money today, he won't take even more tomorrow.

Probably a mistake to make this fact public. If you're making minor spends to appease an asshole, and the asshole figures out that's what you're doing then you'll need to increase again to keep appeasing him.

Not spending enough will become the next "illegal boycott" and that will keep compounding over and over again for the next four years.

As Kipling's 'Dane-geld' poem put it

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:–
"Though we know we should defeat you,
we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

 

[42Kodiak42]

Given how badly Twitter has been gutted, do they even need to pay? Elon's little megaphone is such a dysfunctional mess that you might be able to actually convince the guys on the other end "Yeah, we paid you for advertising, what do you mean it's not on your recordbooks?"

 

[ktmglen]

View attachment 106381

And Kristi Noam shoots another dog.

 

[aliksy]

We should get rid of musk

 

[Steven N]

Sigh, and once more integrity and values are being sacrificed on the altar of The Stock Value...
It even goes as far as the Trump administration sending threat letters to remove references to DEI programs to European companies, and the motherfuckers actually complying.

I was already boycotting US products and companies (up to Coca-Cola and Dominos) but now I am also considering getting rid of all my US based stocks even if it means losing quite a lot Euro's that I wanted to invest in making my house more environmental-friendly.

 

[yronnen]

Many of those companies CEOs, including Silicon Valley, publicly supported and voted for Trump because he's "corporate friendly".

You reap what you sow.

 

[Unsure platypus]

I think it is really important to call out the purchase of Twitter by Elons company Xai. It is really self dealing and likely money laundering.
Step 1. Overpay for a social media platform.
Step 2. Destroy user base
Step 3. Destroy add Base
Step 4. Sell company to other company that you control when your collateral reduces in value to avoid being forced to sell you stock and get hit with taxes. This is self dealing and a functioning SEC, FTC, FCC, and a bunch of other 3 letter gov agencies would likely have some issues with it.
Step 4 a. Overpay(again) to pay off outstanding debts to those that loaned you secured money
Step 4 b. Replace loans with unsecured loans at a company that has no revenue or business model(this is likely money laundering, but I am not a forensic accountant)
Step 5. Profit????
I have been on Ars for more than a decade and this made me get an account to have this discussion.

 

[Aurich]

A better term, I think, is Politico's Great Grovel. It really tells you what is going on.

Basically, businesses are happy being transactional as long as it, you know, favors their bottom line. Principals, laws, higher intellectual and moral scriptures - that's all bullshit and DEI and so 20th Century.

That's a good piece, in that it's not new information but it rounds it all up in one place to really paint the picture.

I'd sum it up, in relation to this story, as this:

1) Watch out for number one

2) Comply in advance

3) Fold instead of fight

Everyone is trying to avoid Sauron's Eye. They all see an existential crisis, to their existence, to their bottom line. And they're all thinking of just themselves, and unwilling to all resist together.

So they're being picked off.

 

[EnPeaSea]

We allowed them far too much power. I exited all the easy stuff (X, FB, Wahtsapp ...) but I find it more difficult to leave macOS (or Windows), iOS (or Google Android). I didn't find an acceptable alternative but we will need one (or several), and sooner will be better.

2025: Finally the Year of Linux (because of MS and Apple appeasement to Chairman Musk)

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

Did any of y'all protest a Tesla Dealership this weekend? Take it a step further and write your state rep to remove Tesla EVs from State Tax rebates. Or does your state support nazis? Until Elon steps down from Tesla and other companies he is CEO or board member, they deserve no mercy.

 

[xPutNameHerex]

I haven't visited X in several months. Is it still overrun with MAGA cultists and neonazis?

If you make a blank account and give them no info (so before they learn your habits), the default feed is full of alt-right provocateurs, admitted fascists, white supremacists, and actual Nazis.

And that's not even counting Elon (who is of course all of those), but made sure not one but two of the first posts you see are his (even on refresh).

There was one basketball post to break it up...of course, it was of a major fight that happened last night and not about the sport itself.

 

[PhaseShifter]

I think it is really important to call out the purchase of Twitter by Elons company Xai. It is really self dealing and likely money laundering.
Step 1. Overpay for a social media platform.
Step 2. Destroy user base
Step 3. Destroy add Base
Step 4. Sell company to other company that you control when your collateral reduces in value to avoid being forced to sell you stock and get hit with taxes. This is self dealing and a functioning SEC, FTC, FCC, and a bunch of other 3 letter gov agencies would likely have some issues with it.
Step 4 a. Overpay(again) to pay off outstanding debts to those that loaned you secured money
Step 4 b. Replace loans with unsecured loans at a company that has no revenue or business model(this is likely money laundering, but I am not a forensic accountant)
Step 5. Profit????
I have been on Ars for more than a decade and this made me get an account to have this discussion.

You left out step 3.5:
3.5a. Convince an autocrat that you can make the government more efficient for him.
3.5b. Gut the regulatory agencies that would oversee any investigations into shady business practices.

 

[rapier]

What remained of market Capitalism is now over. Rackets and thugs will determine income and more importantly capital flows. The Russian system has been adopted. Russia won. It's over for capitalism

 

[the_frakker]

No Conflicts of Interest detected. Elon would’ve informed Trump if there was such a conflict.

/s

 

[Sajuuk]

What remained of market Capitalism is now over. Rackets and thugs will determine income and more importantly capital flows. The Russian system has been adopted. Russia won. It's over for capitalism

Consolidation is the very bread and butter of Capitalism, and oligarchy is its natural form.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

If only there was a term for this... "Blackmail" comes to mind.

Extortion, intimidation, racketeering... seems like Billionaire RICO.

 

[papito10]

America folding this fast in front of a dictatorship oligarchy was not in my cards. The frog has been boiled. When did this country become so weak?

 

[cameron2]

If I am aware that a company is advertising on née twitter, I will boycott the company.

This isn't difficult to understand, and if enough of us do it, née twitter will continue to die as it should.

 

[MaizeAndBlue]

If only there was a term for this... "Blackmail" comes to mind.

Danegeld as well.

 

[coonwhiz]

I'd love a list, so I could avoid them as much as possible. I'm really not interested is supporting spineless companies that choose to support all the terrible things elon is doing.

Probably just look at the Fortune 500 list...

 

[Sajuuk]

America folding this fast in front of a dictatorship oligarchy was not in my cards. The frog has been boiled. When did this country become so weak?

1984.

 

[Zeroumus]

There seems to be a theme where entities are bending the knee way to easily. this really needs to stop

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

If you make a blank account and give them no info (so before they learn your habits), the default feed is full of alt-right provocateurs, admitted fascists, white supremacists, and actual Nazis.

And that's not even counting Elon (who is of course all of those), but made sure not one but two of the first posts you see are his (even on refresh).

There was one basketball post to break it up...of course, it was of a major fight that happened last night and not about the sport itself.

I deleted my account a while back, but even if you specifically followed left-wing accounts and put effort into blocking the fascist bullshit, they'd still inject right-wing reactionary horseshit into your feed. I think the post that really drove home just how bad things have gotten was a Lost Causer claiming that taking down Confederate statues was tantamount to treason and that anyone who engages in it should be hanged, followed by about a thousand replies enthusiastically agreeing and at least a couple doxx posts.

That said, it also appeared that pretty much nobody significant was advertising on X besides McDonalds. Otherwise, nothing but wall-to-wall ads for reactionary literature, gold coins and crypto scams.

 

[Zeroumus]

Fuck all these invertebrates sucking up to Musk. I'm cutting as many of them out of my life as possible. I would cut them all out, but I can't grow my own food or make my own clothes.

I have been over the last few months really cutting these asholes out of my life.

Amazon.. gone
Netflix . Gone
Mcdonalds. Gone
Face book. long gone.
Twitter.. huh . Whats that?

And while it is trendy to announc these things. all i can say is. i am really doinig these things now .

 

[tRexx]

Oligarchs are a bad thing. They corrupt politics and now they are corrupting capitalism itself. But the Supreme Court LOVES money in politics.

 

[jlredford]

The initial boycott of Twitter came when people were able to post screenshots of ads from major corporations next to Nazi posts. That's still a risk for these companies. It would just take one diligent researcher to cause brand damage. Look at Tesla - having demonstrators outside your stores yelling at customers is a worst-case scenario. Look at Target - they caved on DEI and are being boycotted by Black customers.

So maybe the answer is to pay but not actually put anything up. Also don't admit to paying. Consider it straight protection money to the new gangster overlords.

 

[Ushio]

I'd love a list, so I could avoid them as much as possible. I'm really not interested is supporting spineless companies that choose to support all the terrible things elon is doing.

Companies with humans in charge who are probably more worried about one way trips to Musk run human recycling centres than most.

 

[Ushio]

The initial boycott of Twitter came when people were able to post screenshots of ads from major corporations next to Nazi posts. That's still a risk for these companies. It would just take one diligent researcher to cause brand damage. Look at Tesla - having demonstrators outside your stores yelling at customers is a worst-case scenario. Look at Target - they caved on DEI and are being boycotted by Black customers.

So maybe the answer is to pay but not actually put anything up. Also don't admit to paying. Consider it straight protection money to the new gangster overlords.

Why would it matter having ads next to Nazi posts when the people voted in Nazi's who are completely upfront about being Nazi's?

 

[just6979]

A lot of people see it as corruption/extortion, but an equal amount of people feel more powerful siding with the bully than the victim.

But they forget that they can be made the victim at any point, on the whims of a couple of transactional psychopaths in this case. It's impossible to simply "side with the bully", because the bully always still gets to choose who's "really on my side". That scale always eventually slides towards 110% loyal unthinking sycophants, aka henchmen, but even they're not completely safe. They may need to made to go away, either for the bully to save face by disassociation, or because they've become a perceived threat to the bully's power.

Might feel more powerful in the moment, but not looking forward to the eventual outcome is pretty lazy, and not truly powerful.

 

[just6979]

American corps should do something about the corruption they helped bring about...

Will never happen, will never even be considered, until that corruption directly impacts their bottom lines. Short-term profit and impossibly continual growth goes above anything else (including morals) in this end-game unfettered "capitalism" (in quotes because of said corruption: it's so far removed from a truly free market that it really isn't capitalism anymore).

 

[peterford]

merger between Omnicom and Interpublic

this is pure r/boringdystopia

 

[enilc]

Bottom line: Musk and Trump are winning.

 

[Emon]

Well then you should stop reading ARS because Conde Nast very much has a presence on X.

Or - cool it with the kneejerk boycott reactions.

Not wanting to support X is a kneejerk reaction?

You know what's a kneejerk reaction? Throwing a fit when someone criticizes the billionaire that you worship. Get a fucking life of your own.