Walmart announced that it is reducing its advertising on X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, stating that “we’ve found some other platforms better for reaching our customers.”
Walmart’s decision has been in progress for some time, according to a person familiar with the move. However, it comes as X is seeing an advertiser exodus after billionaire owner Elon Musk’s backing of an antisemitic post on the platform.
According to MarketingDive, the retailer spends about $2.7 billion on advertising each year. Joe Benarroch, X’s head of operations, stated in an email to CBS MoneyWatch that Walmart still has a significant presence on X.
“Walmart has a wonderful community of more than a million people on X, and with a half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50% of X users doing most or all of their shopping online,” Benarroch said.
Musk took a defiant stance earlier this week at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, where he criticized advertisers distancing themselves from X and told them to “go f— yourself.” He also expressed discontent that companies are attempting to “blackmail me with advertising” by cutting off their spending with the platform and cautioned that the loss of big advertisers could “kill” X.
“And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company,” Musk added.
Dozens of advertisers — including players such as Apple, Coca Cola and Disney — have pulled out of X since Musk tweeted that a post on the platform claiming Jews fomented hatred against White people, echoing antisemitic stereotypes, was “the actual truth.”
Adversities generally avoid placing their brands and marketing messages next to controversial material, fearing that their image with consumers could be tarnished by incendiary content.
According to a report by The New York Times, the loss of major advertisers could deprive X of up to $75 million in revenue.
Musk stated on Wednesday that his support of the antisemitic post was “one of the most foolish” he’d ever posted on X.
“I am quite sorry,” he said, adding “I should in retrospect not have replied to that particular post.”
