Despite Nazi content: Apple is considering a return to advertising on X
To avoid appearing alongside racist content, companies have stopped advertising on X, including Apple. Apparently, there is now interest again.
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Apple is considering advertising on X (formerly Twitter) again, according to a report. There have been talks in recent weeks about new advertising test runs on Elon Musk's communication platform, according to the Wall Street Journal. Due to the "changing political and social climate", other companies are also considering ramping up their advertising activities on X again, writes the business newspaper. Amazon is already in the process of ramping up its advertising expenditure.
Apple once one of the biggest advertisers on Twitter
Like other large corporations, Apple had completely stopped its advertising bookings on the platform at the end of 2023. The reason for this was a report by a non-profit organization that documented that advertisements for Apple products and other companies such as IBM also appeared directly above or below posts with positive statements about Adolf Hitler and the ideology of the National Socialists.
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Before the takeover by Elon Musk, Apple was one of Twitter's largest advertising customers and reportedly paid over 100 million US dollars per year for it. Immediately after the Twitter purchase at the end of 2022, Musk lashed out at Apple: The iPhone company had reduced its advertising bookings and hated "free speech". Musk also sharply criticized Apple's commission – and said he would "go to war" against Apple over it. A personal meeting between Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook apparently quickly smoothed the waters afterwards. Top managers of the iPhone company up to Cook continue to use X for external communication, sometimes even for an event announcement that was exclusively distributed there.
X sues former advertising customers
After the advertising ban in 2023, Musk no longer railed directly against Apple, but publicly insulted other former advertising clients such as Disney. Last summer, X/Twitter also filed a lawsuit in the US against a major advertising association and companies such as Mars, which had reduced or completely suspended their advertising placements. Such a group boycott of the platform is illegal.
(lbe)
