National Public Radio posted an article on their website today (11/25) about a new report citing at least 50 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have discontinued advertising on the site. Collectively these advertisers made $2B in ad buys on Twitter since 2020.
The report, issued by Media Matters for America earlier this week, notes most of the companies (multinationals like AT&T, Hilton, Kellog, and CNN) are “quiet quitters”- they haven’t issued public statements but have noticeably stopped or drastically reduced their Twitter ad buys. The report cites only a handful of companies, including Chevrolet, Chipotle, and Merck, who have gone as far as issuing public statement about suspending ads on the platform.
One company- Mendelez International- issued a public statement, but still had ads for two of its top brands (Oreo and Ritz) running at high volume for the month of November ’22. Media Matter estimates these ads earned Twitter as much as $600,000.
Maybe it could help if those of us who don’t want to see corporate America financially supporting a platform for hate speech give them some gentle encouragement. While I honestly don’t know how much time I’d have to devote to such a cause, I’d like to see some consumer or anti-misinformation advocates call on the “quiet quitting” companies to make public statements about their Twitter advertising intentions. Would also be good to ask the other 50 companies on the top 100 list if they intend to keep supporting Twitter as it descends into a cesspool of hate and misinformation.
And while we’re at it- how many of the companies who plan to remain on the platform are receiving public contracts (i.e. revenue earned from our tax dollars)?