Elon Musk’s SpaceX is buying an ad package on Elon Musk’s Twitter
By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Business
While a number of major brands have announced advertising pauses on Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition, the platform has scored a new ad buy from one notable billion-dollar business: Musk’s SpaceX.
Musk confirmed on Twitter Monday that his aerospace company, SpaceX, bought a package to advertise its Starlink internet service on Twitter, though he downplayed the size of the ad buy.
The ad buy would be the first for any of Musk’s companies, including Tesla, which does not engage in traditional advertising.
“SpaceX Starlink bought a tiny — not large — ad package to test effectiveness of Twitter advertising in Australia & Spain,” Musk wrote in a reply to one Twitter user, adding that he did the same on competitors such as Facebook, Instagram and Google.
His remarks came after CNBC reported Sunday that Musk had ordered “one of the larger advertising packages available from Twitter” for SpaceX, citing unnamed sources who had viewed internal documents related to the matter. SpaceX did not respond to CNN Business request for comment.
In the weeks since Musk completed the Twitter takeover, some civil rights groups have called for an advertiser boycott of the platform, citing concerns about the direction under its new owner and reports that incidents of hate speech have ticked up on the platform.
A number of major brands including General Mills, the North Face and several car companies (which compete with Musk’s Tesla) have announced they are pausing ads on the social network. Earlier this month, Musk said the growing pullback in advertiser spending has led to a “massive drop in revenue.” He blasted the situation as “extremely messed up!”
Musk has spent his first weeks running Twitter pleading with advertisers to remain on the platform and also working make the platform less reliant on ad dollars by adding more subscription options, including a controversial option to pay for verification. The latter feature led to a wave of accounts impersonating prominent brands on the platform.
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