Elon Musk’s strategy of suing or threatening to sue companies that don’t buy advertising on X has reportedly paid off in at least a few cases. A Wall Street Journal report yesterday said that Verizon and other companies started advertising on X after lawsuit threats.
X sued some advertisers last year over what it claims is an illegal boycott and reportedly threatened to add other companies to the lawsuit if they didn’t buy ads. The WSJ article said that Verizon, which hadn’t advertised on X since 2022, was told late last year that it would be added to the lawsuit if it didn’t buy ads. Verizon subsequently pledged to spend at least $10 million on the platform this year, the article said.
“Fashion company Ralph Lauren also agreed to resume buying ads on X after receiving a lawsuit threat, people familiar with the matter said,” according to the report. “All told, at least six companies that had either received lawsuit threats or were motivated in part by pressure tactics have struck ad deals with X, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The agreements include both firm ad-spending commitments and nonbinding targets.”
After X threatened to sue Verizon, negotiations ramped up, and X CEO Linda Yaccarino “touted X’s improvements regarding brand safety tools and new ad formats,” the WSJ wrote. The article said Verizon’s $10 million in ad spending “could rise to $25 million if the initial ad effort performs well and ads don’t appear near content that Verizon deems inappropriate.” But Verizon’s spending on X would still be well below the $80 million it reportedly spent on Twitter in 2020, two years before Musk bought the social network.
