Elon Musk told advertisers to go for it last year—and today in Cannes he explained why

The world’s richest man was interviewed on stage on Wednesday by Mark Read, the CEO of one of the biggest advertising companies, who started by talking about Musk’s anger with the industry last year.

“Back in November, you had a message for us, you told us to go “f——” ourselves,” WPP Plc chief executive Read said at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a week-long event in the south of France that gathers the industry’s most influential executives. “What did you mean by that?”

Musk told Read that he was referring to a subset of advertisers who were trying to limit free speech, and that the company has made progress in becoming a safer place for brands. The explosion reflected what has been a challenging first few years for Musk at the social media giant, which relies on ads for the bulk of its revenue. At the time, some major advertisers had left the app over concerns about the type of content allowed on the platform, and Musk had said he was worried it would kill the company.

“Marketers have the right to come up with content that they think is relevant to their products,” Musk said at an event in Cannes, adding that third-party reviews give the platform high marks for product safety.

Still, X will always choose the option of making less money than restricting free speech, he said. The billionaire has loosened some of the app’s content restrictions and accepted more banned accounts, making some advertisers uncomfortable. Musk’s behavior, too, has been problematic. He has used the platform to spread conspiracy theories and promote extremist views to his more than 187 million followers.

“I shoot myself in the foot from time to time,” Musk said. “If you’re always breaking through the safe, you’re not real anymore. It’s better to be real.”

It was a return to Cannes for this company that had missed last year’s event. Musk’s strained relationship with the industry began shortly after his tumultuous takeover of X led other advertising agencies, including WPP, to advise clients to pause or consider stopping their ads on the site.

In November, X accused Media Matters for America of a “malicious” lawsuit for trying to drive advertisers away from the social media platform by reporting that ads for Apple Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp. Nazi content.

IX no longer publicly reports revenue or profits, but it was on track for an estimated $2.5 billion in advertising revenue by 2023 before Musk’s onstage comments, Bloomberg previously reported. That would represent a nearly 45% decline from 2021, the last full year before Musk’s arrival.

Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino tried to grow the social media advertising business through a new video partnership, which would provide marketers with more premium places to buy ads within X. But Musk also tried to diversify the company’s business away from advertising, and most notably began selling a revamped subscription service shortly after he took office and announced plans to make X an “everything app” with payment services.

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