General Mills, Audi pause Twitter ads, will review the site

General Mills and Audi are the latest major advertisers to pause advertising on Twitter as questions swirl about how the social media platform will perform under new owner Elon Musk.

Spokesperson Kelsey Roemhildt on Thursday confirmed the Minneapolis-based food manufacturer’s move for food brands like Cheerios and Annie’s macaroni and cheese.

“As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” she said.

Audi spokesman Whaewon Choi-Wiles said the German automaker is pausing advertising and “will continue to assess the situation.”

Advertisers are concerned about whether content censorship will remain as stringent under Musk – a self-described “free speech expert” – as it has been, and whether continuing. Using Twitter can tarnish their brand.

Just before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk made an oath to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter become a “free-for-all hellscape”, a sign that will still have consequences for those who violate its rules against harassment, violence or voting and COVID-related misinformation.

But since then, some users have posted racial slurs and repeated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies are still being enforced. or not. The NAACP this week said it had expressed to Musk their concerns about “dangerous, life-threatening conspiracies and hatreds that have grown on Twitter” under his following.

Last week, General Motors announced that it had paused its Twitter ads during the operation to “understand the direction of the platform”. GM describes the pause as a normal step when a vehicle platform undergoes significant change.

IPG Mediabrands recommended to customers on Monday that they pause Twitter advertising for a week until it becomes clearer about the brand’s safety on the site, according to one person who viewed the recommendation.

Other major Twitter advertisers such as Warner Discovery, Coca-Cola and Nestle did not respond to requests for comment on their advertising plans.

Some may evaluate their plans after Twitter’s new “content moderation board” meets. Musk has said that he will not reinstate any accounts or make significant content decisions before it is subpoenaed. No date has been announced for that meeting.

About 90% of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertisers, but it’s not the biggest platform advertisers target. digital marketing. Google, Amazon, and Meta account for about 75% of digital advertising, with all other platforms combined making up the remaining 25%.

As predicted by Insider Intelligence, Twitter will account for 0.9% of worldwide digital ad spend by 2022. Meta will account for 21.4% by 2022.

Twitter has lost most of its top executives in the past week, including the person in charge of advertising sales.

Sarah Personette, the site’s chief customer officer, tweeted earlier this week that she resigned on Friday on Twitter and her work access was officially cut off Monday night. A few days earlier, she said she had a “great discussion” with Musk and expressed optimism about the future of the company. In announcing her resignation on Tuesday, she said she still believes Twitter’s new administration understands the importance of upholding the “brand safety” standards she has sought to defend.

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