“It’s whatever amount is enough to stay off the naughty list,” says ad executive.
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Big brands are spending small sums on X to stay out of Musk’s crosshairs
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Corporate friendly means nothing in a consumer economy if you tank it and your consumer customers can’t afford anything.
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There needs to be pushback. This admin will continue to test the boundaries of what they can get away with. This type of enabling only emboldens them. I guess it's easy for me to say 'cause I have no fiduciary duty to any company, but jeez, grow a spine.
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There is only one time I can think that I wished I had an account on X. When Elon told the astronaut that he was retarded I wanted to thank Elon for admitting the astronaut was smarter than he is.
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This ought to serve as everyone's daily reminder that Brands™ are not your friends.
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They [Musk and subordinates] believe this [pre-aquisition ad level spending] is the minimum X should be bringing in without the hit caused by brands “boycotting” or avoiding the platform over its political bent.
Geniuses! If you factor out all the consequences of the Nazi content, Twitter should bring in roughly what it brought in before the Nazo content.
What an ambitious goal! What a brilliant understanding of the market. True leaders.
Geniuses! If you factor out all the consequences of the Nazi content, Twitter should bring in roughly what it brought in before the Nazo content.
What an ambitious goal! What a brilliant understanding of the market. True leaders.
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They are already threatening French companies with being banned from the US if they comply with EU law.
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It should remind us that Musk is neither a scientist nor an engineer but a manipulative "businessman".
Hiding most of Twitter's loss by absorbing it into another one of his bubble companies is the kind of move thought up by the creative accountants of the Big Four.
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I stopped reading Commentary despite its many excellent articles when Podhoretz took over and it started to fill up with Randian dross about how corporations owed no debt to society whatsoever (despite their income stream depending on the continuation of that society) and had no obligation whatsoever to act ethically.
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Yeah, because they totally haven't devalued the product through reputation damage and userbase loss, so they cleaaaarly deserve that revenue. /s
Man its amazing just how up his own entitled behind Musk and his sycophants are (to be clear the sycophants are up Musks behind not their own)
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red_shift_limited
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
It's funny seeing how nothing really matters and that these companies have no principals at all. Or maybe more chilling? I don't think there's an English word for how the majority of the population will gladly throw you into the gears for another $1
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It feels like it should go without saying, but here we go again. Any company with external investors doesn’t share your values. If they happen to temporarily coincide, it’s only because it’s more profitable in that moment to do so.
As soon as that changes, their ‘values’ will too.
As soon as that changes, their ‘values’ will too.
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Unfortunately given the current situation we have so much corruption that it's honestly hard to keep track of it all. Yes, it's deplorable but do you ever read the news? There is no signal to noise ratio anymore, and this is probably not even in the top 20.
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Yup, POTUS likes to think of himself as a Mafia Don, but all he is is a little Donny.
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The only hope is the citizenry. These companies will boycott X when the cost of the citizenry avoiding their goods exceeds the potential losses of fighting with EM. This could be sooner than we expected.
Just look abroad to see the damage:
Tesla sales are down 49% in Europe despite EV sales increasing.
Tesla sales have declined significantly in Canada — approximately 70 percent between December 2024 and January 2025.
EM is now radioactive. He will destroy everything he touches and become more unstable and dangerous as this continues. Eventually, he'll anger Americans as much as Canadians and Europeans, which will be the devasting collapse of the Tesla bubble, which underwrites his empire. It will be extremely dangerous for a company to be associated with him because of the risk of radioactive contamination.
We already see evidence of a backlash in the US, although the sales drops don't yet mirror Europe or Canada, where EM's new administration has been most hostile. I suspect it's coming faster than any of us could have imagined.
Just look abroad to see the damage:
Tesla sales are down 49% in Europe despite EV sales increasing.
Tesla sales have declined significantly in Canada — approximately 70 percent between December 2024 and January 2025.
EM is now radioactive. He will destroy everything he touches and become more unstable and dangerous as this continues. Eventually, he'll anger Americans as much as Canadians and Europeans, which will be the devasting collapse of the Tesla bubble, which underwrites his empire. It will be extremely dangerous for a company to be associated with him because of the risk of radioactive contamination.
We already see evidence of a backlash in the US, although the sales drops don't yet mirror Europe or Canada, where EM's new administration has been most hostile. I suspect it's coming faster than any of us could have imagined.
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All the advertisers would have to do is document performance of ads on Twitter to the other platforms. It would likely show that ads on other platforms perform better.
That and they could grow a spine.
That and they could grow a spine.
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The bystander effect is strong in Americans. You all seem to hope that, like on tv, there'll be a rugged bullet-resistant outsider who you can cheer for as he makes everything better.
You just haven't figured out that it was supposed to be you all along.
You just haven't figured out that it was supposed to be you all along.
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You see, ads on twitter only underperform because of the woke soy cuck cuck beta [decade-old 4chan nazi slang continues as far as you care to read]
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Sure. Except… good luck selling your wares into the new 300 million-strong Pauper class the Kmart Rouge is busily baking.
Gruel and religion will be the only hot products still selling. (The gruel itself will be cold, ofc.)
Choke them off, humiliate them publicly, let them throw toddler tantrums, and so undo themselves. Or, think only of this quarterly bonus, submit, and be boned.
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As an American, I just wanted to pipe in and say that I do see this as the corruption it is, and it upsets me greatly. This is a bit of an aside (not really related to the article), but probably still interesting to note: In the 2024 presidential election in the US, Trump won 49.8% of the votes, Harris won 48.3%, with the remaining 1.9% of voters voting for other candidates. That means the majority of US citizens did not vote for Trump. I'd wager that most, if not all, of those who did not vote for Trump do recognize the corruption that's happening. I'd also wager that a decent portion of those people who did vote for Trump also recognize the corruption. Assuming I'm correct, that would mean most American's do see the corruption.
What does this mean? Probably not much. But maybe I'd rather see folks say things like "it's pathetic that Trump supporters don't see the corruption" rather than saying "it's pathetic that Americans don't see the corruption." Okay, okay... I'll go back to crying over my beer in private.
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I'd wager that most who withheld their vote also recognize the corruption (and were unwilling to vote for any amount of corruption perceived from the Democratic party).
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They should run ads showing a hostage chained up in a cell. I'd have some respect for any brand that would do that.
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Plenty of Americans know what is going on. The others will catch on when the price of eggs skyrockets along with cars and everything else they try to buy.
I would bet a lot of Americans would vote for some corrupt so-and-so if only he would be competent and run the economy well. But Trump is both corrupt and fully incompetent.
If some theoretical candidate comes along in the future who is corrupt and competent, we might be in real trouble because that guy would get a ton of support that wouldn't evaporate. Many people would like someone to be corrupt in their favor. It just doesn't usually happen like that. Corruption works in the favor only of the already rich and powerful.
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NO. For one, there is no fucking way that they would go out of business just because Musk made an angry tweet. It's absolutely cowardice.
And your blatant transphobic remark isn't needed.
They do not give a shit about the well being of their employees. They're being cowards. And yes, they need to take into account the fact that they're appeasing a dictator, which is absolutely an immoral act.
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I'm seeing word play of "felon" and implication of being a Russian asset, but not the transphobia. Pardon my privilege, I seek to learn, was it the feminine coded versioning of his name?
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Ads have gotten so bad, they let me know whom to boycott. That is the highest purpose of ads. Fuck ads.
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Great term! From the link:
"But leaders at [Columbia U] also knew “lifesaving research” would be “seriously curtailed” without the $400 million in research funding, the person said. Taking the actions, the Trump administration made clear, would be the only path toward getting it back."
What about all of the "lifesaving research" happening at other universities (>>$400M collectively) which is in MORE jeopardy because Columbia decided to show Trump that bullying is effective? This is cowardly, shortsighted, and uncreative on Columbia's part. Just brainstorming here, but what if a university hospital (or all of them allied?) threatened to kick GOP donors* out of clinical trials or treatment programs as a "strategy" for managing the funding shortfall? Deny them the care they would deny to others. Show the GOP donors how the loss of funding is going to hurt them, and make it hurt. GOP donors don't want to support medical research? No medical care for them! Having a serious medical issue is terrifying--terrifying enough to overcome the obsequiousness to Trump, IMO. The GOP donors don't seem to realize that they aren't immune from what is a very human fear. Take advantage of that natural terror, universities. Team up, and show no mercy.
*not so much the rank and file MAGAs, since Trump won't listen to them anyway
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Ad I'd like to see: Fifth Avenue. Dead body lying on street in background. Figure with body of Jennifer Garner, head of Trump, one hand carrying gun, other hand in someone's pocket, turning to audience, saying, "What's in your wallet?"
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anybody care to start a pool on when xai/x "merges" with truth social? when and how many billions will elon shovel to trump for that worthless propaganda vehicle?
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So many sad things in this story:
- That so many have given so much power to Musk
- That advertising on X is still effective
- That all these highly paid executives are truly worthless spineless pieces of shit
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Perhaps the next level will be to call it "domestic terrorism" for not spending enough money with Elon?
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The Sheep Look Up
Ars Centurion
I prefer to apply the North of Ireland Space Program motto: lucky once, lucky every time.
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“It’s not because the brand safety risk has gone away. But the far greater risk is that a comment [from Musk] in the press sends your stock price tumbling, and instead of a multimillion-dollar risk you’re facing a multibillion-dollar risk.”
so they are bending the knee. what a shame. this is raqueteering. if you dont bend the knee i will post some shit and your evaluation is in the sink. is that it. pathethic.
so they are bending the knee. what a shame. this is raqueteering. if you dont bend the knee i will post some shit and your evaluation is in the sink. is that it. pathethic.
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Oh, no argument there. But I'm sure you've noticed that most companies have switched to short-termism - they're not looking at plans for long-term sustainability, but short-term major successes that bump the stock price up enough so that the current C-suite can take a hefty bonus, then fuck off to the next target.
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