Walmart Pulls X Ads After Musk’s Expletive-Laden Comments Against Advertisers

Topline

Walmart has stopped advertising on X, telling Forbes it found alternate platforms to engage its customers, marking the first large company to depart from the platform after X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a string of disparaging comments toward advertisers leaving the platform in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the U.S. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA … [+] Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Key Facts

Walmart didn’t cite the comments made by Musk in its reasoning for ending ads on X, instead saying it isn’t advertising on the platform “as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers.”

A Walmart spokesperson declined to tell Bloomberg when the change takes effect or what motivated the decision to stop advertising on X.

Walmart joins a growing group of companies, such as Disney, Sony and IBM, that have stopped advertising on X following an antisemitic tweet Musk agreed with more than two weeks ago.

Musk apologized for the tweet during the interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, calling it “one of the most foolish things” he’s done on the platform—though the apology came after the tech billionaire accused fleeing advertisers of “blackmailing” him with money and said they should “go f***” themselves.

When reached for comment on the move, X executive Joe Benarroch said “Walmart has a wonderful community of more than a million people on X” and plugged the platform as influential for holiday shopping.

What To Watch For

Musk said in the DealBook Summit interview that an advertiser boycott could “kill the company,” adding that he believes the “world” would join him in blaming advertisers for the company’s collapse if it ever materialized.

Tangent

Walmart’s stock is trading down more than 1% on Friday at $153.73, though the retailer’s share price is up more than 7% on the year.

Key Background

Several large advertisers began leaving X after Musk’s approval of the antisemitic tweet last month, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast and NBCUniversal, and Lionsgate. Left-leaning media watchdog group Media Matters for America also published a report last month showing ads for companies like Apple and IBM appearing under pro-Nazi and Holocaust denial posts, though X later filed a defamation lawsuit against the group, accusing it of manufacturing a desired outcome that does not reflect the typical user experience. Advertising remains X’s main source of revenue and has taken multiple hits since Musk acquired the platform, formerly known as Twitter, last year for $44 billion. However, the advertisers that left X following Musk’s post are just a handful that have done so. Other companies have left X since Musk’s acquisition, contributing to a 60% decrease in U.S. ad revenue acknowledged by Musk in September.