Elon Musk is going to get the biopic treatment, but maybe that’s a touch premature? Walter Isaacson’s big, newish bio of the Tesla/Space X/X (née Twitter) guy came out shortly before his life got even weirder still. Musk is in the midst of another advertiser exodus, this one more severe. After all, they’re splitting because he amplified an anti-Semitic post, and so soon after getting into a fight with the Anti-Defamation League. But he has an idea on how to lure them back.
NEW – Elon Musk: "If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is."pic.twitter.com/HtUJRsWS2I
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 29, 2023
Per Mediaite, Musk was interviewed at The New York Times Dealbook Summit, which also saw fellow villainous media honcho David Zaslav defend his cancelling completed films. When asked about fleeing advertisers, Musk claimed not to care.
“I hope they stop,” Musk said. “Don’t advertise.”
When asked what he meant, “If someone’s going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f*ck yourself.” Awkward silence followed, so Musk made it more awkward, repeating, slowly this time, “Go. F*ck. Yourself. Is that clear?”
Musk even taunted Bob Iger, who he speculated was in attendance, saying, “Hi, Bob.” (Also sitting in the audience: Twitter/X’s newish CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was hired in part to lure advertisers back.)
Tough talk aside, Musk made clear that losing advertisers is not good and he probably needs them. “What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company,” Musk declaimed. “And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.”
Musk did admit that responding positively to an anti-Semitic tweet was “one of the most foolish, if not the most foolish, thing I’ve done.”
He added, “I should in retrospect not have replied to that one person and should have written in greater length what I meant. But those clarifications were ignored by the media and essentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and arguably to those who are anti-Semitic. And for that I’m quite sorry, that was not my intention.”
So to recap: Musk apologized for what he did, admits losing advertisers is detrimental to the company he bought a year-and-change ago, and also those advertisers should eat sh*t.
(Via Mediaite)