L’Oréal suspends advertising spending on Twitter

L’Oréal is suspending advertising spending on Twitter, as leading brands and marketing groups grow nervous that inappropriate content will spread on the platform under Elon Musk’s ownership.

The decision by the world’s biggest cosmetics maker comes just days after Musk completed his $44bn acquisitionAccording to two people who are familiar with the situation, the group was part of the social media network.

L’Oréal declined to comment. In a statement provided to Reuters following publication, a company spokesperson said it had not “made any decision to suspend advertising” on the platform. Twitter didn’t immediately respond to inquiries for comment.*

Musk assured marketers that Twitter won’t become an untrustworthy platform. “free-for-all hellscape”, executives at some of the world’s biggest advertising groups said several clients were privately reviewing — and in some cases curbing — their exposure even if they were reluctant to make their concerns public.

“There’s some quiet quitting going on,” said one ad executive.

Twitter has this week made a renewed push to reassure advertisers, which account for the majority of the company’s $5bn in annual revenues.

In one email sent to a media agency, seen by the Financial Times, the social media group asked brands to “bear with us as we move through this transition”, adding that it had not changed its moderation policies and sought to be “warm and welcoming to all”.

In a call on Wednesday with top advertising spenders on Twitter, Musk told brands that he planned to offer different tiers of content moderation, similar to a film ratings system, according to three people familiar with the conversation. One of the people who spoke to him said that Musk assured everyone on the call that he did not intend to eliminate content moderation roles at his company.

However, Musk appeared to dismiss marketers’ concerns publicly on Wednesday, tweeting a poll asking if advertisers should support free speech or political “correctness”.

L’Oréal is one of the world’s top 10 advertisers and spent more than €10bn on promoting its cosmetics, perfumes and shampoos last year alone. It only allocates a small portion of its marketing budget for Twitter. However, it is a much bigger spender on TikTok (and Instagram), which are more oriented to image-making as well as brand influencers.

The beauty company’s decision is one sign of far broader unease among advertisers to Twitter and follows a similar decision last week by General Motors.

The largest US carmaker said it had “temporarily paused” paid advertising on the service “as is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform”. 

Interpublic, one of the world’s largest advertising groups, has also recommended its clients pause spending on Twitter for the next week.

The US conglomerate behind McCann and MullenLowe told clients they should wait until there is “more clarity” on Twitter’s plans and until the platform had the necessary “organisational capability” to ensure “trust and safety”, according to advice first reported by Morning Brew.

Musk has stated previously that he would loosen restrictions on content and eliminate permanent user bans. This raises concerns among advertisers that abuse and toxicity could increase. There are also concerns about misinformation and violent content being spread online, especially with the US midterm elections coming up next week.

Since taking the reins the world’s richest person has said Twitter’s approach to “brand safety” — an industry term that refers to the risk that ads appear alongside problematic content and misinformation — is unchanged.

Forty civil groups signed an open letter on Tuesday to Twitter’s top marketing clients, including Amazon, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, urging them to cease all advertising if the new owner undermines community standards. The groups said they were concerned that Twitter’s initiatives to moderate content would be “gutted”.

Numerous executives from the advertising industry said this. Musk would ultimately need the industry’s financial backing to realise his ambitions for Twitter, and as a result needed to take seriously their concerns about problematic content.

Musk has promised to create a “content moderation council” at Twitter with “widely diverse viewpoints”, and said users who had been blocked would not be allowed back on until the company had established “a clear process for doing so”.

Musk’s arrival at the helm of the company led to an increase in hateful language. The company blamed a coordinated campaign of largely fake accounts for the rise in hate speech. Musk himself posted, and later deleted, an article containing an unfounded conspiracy theory about the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

Other advertising executives and brands are concerned about Musk’s plans for widespread lay-offs at Twitter and whether these will hit its brand safety and advertising sales teams. Some of these were unnerved by the resignation on Tuesday of Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief commercial officer, who had been their main point of contact at the company.

*This article has been amended to include a statement from L’Oréal provided to Reuters