Global giants Volkswagen, Pfizer, and General Mills suspend Twitter advertising

Advertising campaigns on Twitter have been suspended by Volkswagen, Pfizer, and General Mills.

Pressure is building on new Twitter owner Elon Musk after global brand giants Volkswagen, Pfizer, and General Mills all announced this Thursday, November 3, that they are suspending their advertising campaigns on the platform.

Confirming an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal, Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokesperson for General Mills – whose brands include Cheerios and Haagen-Dazs – said: “We have paused advertising on Twitter. As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend”.

Citing anonymous sources, the report claimed that Volkswagen, pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and Mondelez International, who make Oreo, were also pausing their advertising with the social media giant.

Following Musk’s Twitter takeover last week, the first major advertiser to suspend its advertising was US auto giant General Motors.

Speculation that Musk will allow accounts from banned users to be reinstated, civil rights groups and other officials have voiced their concern that Twitter could suddenly be littered with uncontrolled hate speech and misinformation.

Kanye West is already back on the platform and it remains to be seen if the likes of Donald Trump will be allowed back on.

Rumours that Elon Musk is preparing to cut a large percentage of the Twitter workforce – which could include content moderators – are also reportedly concerning regular advertisers. The CEO has attempted to reassure advertisers that the platform will not turn into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’. Revenue from advertising is of course an important aspect of keeping Twitter running.

Musk has caused a stir by announcing that users will be charged $8 per month to have their accounts verified with the blue badge. This is being touted as a potential alternative revenue stream for the company but has not been well-received by many existing users.

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