Snack manufacturer Mondelez, the maker of Oreos and other brands, has pulled its ads from Twitter after an alleged spike in hate speech on the platform after its takeover by Tesla boss Elon Musk.
“What we’ve seen recently since the change on Twitter has been announced, is the amount of hate speech has increased significantly. We felt there is a risk our advertising would appear next to the wrong messages. As a consequence, we have decided to take a pause and a break until that risk is as low as possible,” Mondelez International CEO Dirk Van de Put told Reuters Tuesday.
The ad freeze started Thursday, according to advertising industry publication AdAge. Mondelez, before the pause, was a top 20 advertiser on Twitter, with a $25 million yearly ad spend.
Mondelez spent $14.6 million on Twitter advertising in the third quarter of 2022, according to the business publication Crain’s Chicago Business.
Other big Twitter advertisers have indicated they plan to wait and access the changes Mr. Musk has in store for the social media giant.
“We have had some clients asking how the sale might impact their Super Bowl plans, but most seem to be taking a wait-and-see attitude, which is what we are advising right now. As always, we have multiple backup scenarios in place,” an unnamed advertising agency executive told AdAge.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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