IPG advises clients to pause Twitter ads post Elon Musk takeover

Mediabrands, a unit of IPG, has advised its clients to pause Twitter ads for the next week until the company gives more details about its plans to protect safety on the platform.

Advertising giant, Interpublic Group (IPG) has reportedly recommended that its clients put a 'temporary pause' on spending on Twitter ads following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media giant.

IPG is the parent company of Universal McCann, with a roster of blue-chip clients that include American Express, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Spotify and others. MAGNA, IPG’s media intelligence arm, asked clients in an email that Twitter “has been silent in any direct comms with marketers and agencies."

“The current situation is unpredictable and chaotic, and bad actors and unsafe behaviors thrive in such an environment,” the message reportedly added.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the firm is telling its clients to wait for clarity on the social network’s plans for trust and safety, and to see whether Musk will be able to prevent Twitter from becoming, as he called it, a “free-for-all hellscape.”

The concern for advertisers is about placing their commercials in environments where their pitches won’t appear next to offensive language, hate speech or shocking video. Some of Musk’s recent anouncements about allowing banned Twitter users to return have raised eyebrows among ad executives. 

The social media platform revealed that the Tesla CEO who closed the $44 billion twitter acquisition deal last week has also dissolved the board and become the sole director of Twitter. Out of the many changes that Musk made to Twitter, the dissolution of the board of directors is a major step.

Among the slew of changes being announced, Musk has now said that account verification on Twitter will cost users USD 8 per month, bringing it down from the previously planned USD 20 subscription fee for the coveted blue checkmark.

Musk believes that adding a subscription price on the account verification will help the social media platform sustain itself on the long run, in addition to generating revenues from advertisements. Musk is of the opinion that introducing a fee for the blue checkmark would help mitigate the problems the social network has with spam and bots.