Walmart joins list of big firms who pulled ads from Elon Musk’s X

Retail giant Walmart has confirmed that it is not advertising on Elon Musk-run X (formerly Twitter), according to a report by CNN.

“We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers,” a Walmart spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The departure of Walmart adds to the growing list of firms leaving X after Musk endorsed an antisemitic post last month. Apple, Disney, IBM, Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery are among the companies no longer buying ads on X.

Following this development, Joe Benarroch, head of Operations at X, said that brands who advertise on the platform are able to get in front of massive amount of users, the report mentioned.

“Walmart has a wonderful community on X, and with half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50 per cent of X users doing most or all of their shopping online,” Benarroch was quoted as saying.

He claimed that Walmart’s decision to withdraw ads from X is not a direct result of Musk’s action and said Walmart continues to be active on the platform in other ways.

“Walmart has not advertised on X since October, so this is not a recent pause, the company has just been organically connecting with its community of more than one million people on X,” Benarroch said.

Earlier this week, Musk apologised for what he called his “dumbest” social media post to date. However, he lashed out at sponsors that abandoned his site.

“I don’t want them to advertise,” Musk said at the New York Times DealBook Summit. “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself,” he added.