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    X Says Walmart Pulled Ads Weeks Before Media Matters Hate Speech Report and Musk Rant

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1055 Views
    A sign encouraging customers to order grocery items online and pick them up at a store is displayed at a WalMart Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Ark., Thursday, June 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)

    By Barbara Ortutay

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    Walmart is the latest company to publicly join the growing flock of major advertisers to pull spending from X, Elon Musk's beleaguered social media company, amid concerns about hate speech — as well as reaching a sizeable audience on the platform.

    "We aren't advertising on X as we've found some other platforms better reach our customers," Walmart said in a statement.

    While Walmart went public with the pullout on Friday, Joe Benarroch, head of operations at X, said the company has not advertised on the platform since October. The company, he added, "has just been organically connecting with its community of more than one million people on X."

    Walmart did not immediately respond to a message for further comment on Friday afternoon.

    The announcement comes two days after Musk went on an expletive-ridden rant in an on-stage interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin about companies halting spending on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to antisemitic and other hateful material. Musk said advertisers pulling out are engaging in "blackmail" and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

    "Don't advertise," Musk said.

    Besides Walmart, the Walt Disney Co., IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast have also decided to stop spending on X. Many pulled out earlier this month after the liberal advocacy group Media Matters issued a report showing their ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. X has sued the group, saying it "manufactured" the report in order to "drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp."

    X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, is a former NBCUniversal executive who was hired by Musk to rebuild ties with advertisers who fled after he took over, concerned that his easing of content restrictions was allowing hateful and toxic speech to flourish and that would harm their brands. But X's relations with advertisers don't appear to be improving.

    "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 in a statement.

    Barbara Ortutay is an AP technology writer

    Category:News
    Tags:Elon MuskWalmartX



    Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens

    Thursday, November 21, 2024

    "Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.

    The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.

    And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).

    This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.

    "'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."

    As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More

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