‘Nice little advertising business you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it’

Elon Musk’s X is reportedly strong-arming global ad giant Interpublic Group to get clients to spend more with the platform, and is using the company’s planned deal with Omnicom Group as leverage, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the WSJ, citing several people with knowledge of the conversation, a lawyer for X contacted a counterpart within IPG in December and said that its clients, which include global brands such as American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and General Mills, needed to spend more with the social platform.

The WSJ said that the X lawyer suggested that failing to do so could mean that Musk could use his powerful position within president Donald Trump’s administration to slow down or potentially even torpedo the advertising conglomerate’s $13 billion deal with Omnicom.

The report added that X CEO Linda Yaccarino has “made comments that seemed like similar warnings” in conversations with IPG executives. It said that IPG recently “signed a new annual deal with X for potential client spending.”

In an email statement to Campaign, a spokesperson for IPG Mediabrands Canada said: “Our role is to recommend the most strategic media investments to our clients. These objective recommendations maximise business outcomes for brands and audiences.

"We continually work with a cross-section of media partners and believe a broad range of options delivers the greatest value and efficiency for marketers. We do not make spending commitments on behalf of clients to any partner or platform, and decision-making authority always rests with the client.”

The story marks yet another development in what has been a contentious relationship between X and advertisers since Musk acquired the platform, then known as Twitter, in 2022.

In 2023, Musk accused advertisers of “blackmail” and told them to “go f*** yourself” during an on-stage interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. His remarks led several major advertisers, including Disney, Apple and IBM, to pause their advertising on the platform.

In August, the platform filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and several major brands, accusing them of attempting to orchestrate what it called a “massive advertiser boycott.” Following that lawsuit, the WFA said it was discontinuing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, with CEO Stephan Loerke suggesting  that as a non-profit with limited resources, it was unable to fight a legal battle with X.

And just this month, X added several other advertisers including Nestlé, Colgate-Palmolive, Lego and Pinterest to the lawsuit. According to the WSJ, brands including Amazon and Apple have already returned to X, and Verizon is also planning to begin spending again.

The WSJ also reported that Yaccarino and senior staff met with executives from companies including Omnicom, Dentsu, and WPP during the annual CES show earlier this year. People with knowledge of Yaccarino’s meeting with WPP said that she pushed the agency to sign an annual upfront deal, and later sought higher spending commitments.

The story said that WPP is still in discussions with X, while Publicis Groupe is “in the process of signing a nonbinding annual ad pact.”

Ruben Schreurs, CEO of consulting firm Ebiquity, told the WSJ that brands are returning to X in “quite significant numbers” because it’s easier to spend what he called a “minimum viable amount” on the platform rather than endure the legal and political ramifications of boycotting.