General Mills, Audi pause Twitter ads, will evaluate site

What percent of Twitter's revenue did these advertisers make up?

Aren't they still doing this ?

It seems like that is the only solution Tech companies have to the constant growth cycle imperative that they or the shareholders imposes on them.

Malt-O-Meal FTW: https://www.maltomeal.com/

Unscientific gut feeling guess: sugary sodas need to go waaay before the cereals.

As of yet, there's been no high-profile unbannings, or even changes to the ToS, AFAIK. Just a plan to turn the blue checkmark into something that's not an exclusive status symbol.

Yes, redundancies can be brutal for those involved, but they're not exactly uncommon when the economy isn't doing so well, or a company changes hands or is restructured. And so far, the scale of the redundancies seems to be mostly speculation?

That’s certainly how Musk wants everyone to think about it but isn’t the more parsimonious explanation that humans love watching a good train wreck, and he’s showing every sign of delivering one? The plot in Atlas Shrugged was a fantasy around productive people being held back by society but none of Musk’s problems are anything like that. Instead of being held back by the government, he’s made billions from it at both Tesla and SpaceX. His problems are all self-created: advertisers voluntarily choosing where they see the most benefit to their business seems like something libertarians should wholeheartedly support.

It is genuinely amazing and saddening how many people continue to make excuses for Musk’s actions and behavior. If that is what success is, yes, please, fail. No one told Elon to light a substantial amount of his wealth on fire with this effort; his character and emotional health led him here. Wealth amplifies who you already are.

He could’ve just been the cool dude who made sexy electric cars and rockets that land themselves. He might still go back to that after the Twitter experiment, but the reputation will take Herculean efforts to recover.

By no means a Musk hater by the way. Own multiple Teslas (acquired pre shenanigans), took my kid to see the first falcon heavy launch, and used to to drive to the cape all of the time to see earlier F9 launches at all hours. I respect the ambition, just not at the cost of being a decent human being, and I think that’s a fair position to hold: disappointment.

I think that among Musk's "haters" (I include myself in that group) are a lot of people who at one time or another had faith in the things Musk was saying but then saw him fail to deliver... again, and again, and again. If the average person did this for the better part of decade there would be consequences. However, Musk has been able to skate by on a Tony Stark-like perception of himself and continues to elicit an unreasonably credulous response from his fans and the media.

So I think "wanting to see him fail" is a combination of skepticism - since he has a long track record of over promising and way under delivering - as well as perhaps a desire for Musk to reap some kind of consequences for talking out his ass for so long.

Norms that matter: Don't call rescue workers pedophiles for no reason. Don't impregnate your employee. Don't put software designated generously as beta in control of vehicles on public roads. Don't boisterously sign legal agreements, harass your business associates and thousands of innocent employees, and then strain the legal system in an attempt to undo your whoopsie. Don't lay people off in such a way designed to circumvent severance requirements. The list goes on and on.

There's not a lot of effective enforcement against these things but it's important that they don't become the norm. So insofar as I'm "cheering for him to fail," it's because I'd prefer that we don't have an entire generation of business leaders thinking this behavior is admirable. The marginal improvements he can make to Twitter nowhere near outbalance the harms he can inflict on our society's norms. Also, frankly, I'd prefer he focused on cars and rockets because we need his attention (and more) on those big problems and he's made great progress so far. The Twitter sidequest is an addiction gone awry.

Spite is surly not the reason this billion-dollar brands are pulling advertising from the company whose owner is using it to spread conspiracy theories about political violence. These companies have no compass beyond shareholder value. They just see the writing on the wall now that Musk has ownership of Twitter.

People want to see bad behavior have bad consequences. Anything else would be amazing. And while this is by no means the lowest Musk has gone, it's definitely one of the times he has had most influence over a lot of people.

Musk has in just recent time been peddling some conspiracy theories, made some astonishing remarks re: the status of Crimea in Ukraine and so on. It's more than enough already to make me never want to see him succeed in controlling anything related to media (social or not).

> Auto companies cutting spending is just spite from competition which is understandable.

That could be part of it. But unless there is a clear sign that auto companies do this to a larger extent than other megacorps I'd put it down to just being defensive. Twitter under Musk has controversy and turmoil written all over it, And if I were a large company I'd want no part in it. It's so easy to shift ad money to other places.

I'm guessing advertisers will return once the storm settles. At that point, I also fully expect Musk to have gone full circle, realizing the only way to run Twitter was the old way. Whether it will survive that round trip is the question.

Musk and his various companies have openly sharted on laws, regulations and legal orders and agreements many, many times (e.g. his SEC squabbles which should have led to someone checking over his tweets prior to sending them out, COVID-19 rule ignorance, workplace safety regulations, ...), and he's been a general arsehole way too often as well (the "pedo diver" incident, one of his own kids distancing themselves which led to Musk twittering anti-trans shit, ...).

Of course people want to see that even the richest asshole on the planet is not fully immune from consequences for his actions.

When you watch a clown, you expect him to slip on a banana peel. Musk puts himself out there as an utterly unserious buffoon. This is what he wants.

Nature made everyone addicted to sugar. Of course not everyone is as prone to this as others, but sugar is energy and organisms (we included) need energy.

Manipulative advertising is also a bit redundant. Advertisement is meant to be manipulative, which is maybe more obvious by a pejorative/synonym for advertisement: propaganda.

Atlas Shrugged my ass. There has never been a more effective government suckler than Elon Musk. Every business he's running exists entirely due to the largesse of the federal government. Except Twitter of course, and so far it's looking quite possible that he may end up incinerating his $44 billion dollar impulse purchase.

If we are in or do enter a downturn, I wouldn't be surprised if these ads become unprofitable. They'll quickly get turned down.

Then using your logic, Musk (and by extension Tesla, SpaceX) are also getting involved in politics? Why are you upset on the one hand (cereal) and not the other (Musk)?

This is how facists work- they frame anyone’s dissenting speech and actions as politically opposed.

Have you been in cryogenic deep sleep the last decade? This is every single Big Corp now. No matter how you stand on these issues, but if subsidising abortion, flying the rainbow flag, enforcing affirmative action and supporting immigration isn't political, then what is?

It's not some immoral thing to dislike a person for their personality.