X advertisers say they won't be returning after Elon Musk told them to 'f***' off

Elon Musk took to the stage at the 2023 DealBrook Summit in New York on Wednesday and was pressed about the relationship between his "antisemitic" tweets that led to big advertisers such as Apple and Disney to suspend advertising expenditure on the social media platform.

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Musk responded to the question by saying he hoped that advertisers who paused expenditure with X over his tweets wouldn't return to the platform. The company CEO added that anyone who attempts to "blackmail" him with money should "go f*** yourself". Known companies that have paused ad spending on X are as follows: Disney, Apple, IBM, Comcast, Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount Global, and Lions Gate Entertainment.

Now, industry analysts are assessing whether or not advertisers will be returning to the platform following Musk's apology for the post and his harsh words to companies that tried to "blackmail" him. The New York Times and Reuters have reported that advertisers won't be returning to the social media platform, and Reuters mentions one executive at a major global ad-buying firm, who declined to be named, said only one major client was continuing to advertise on X.

"Telling major advertisers and Bob Iger to go F themselves might be the final nail in the coffin," Nellis said.

"We believe there is a risk that more companies will stop advertising on X; at least on a short-term basis," D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Tom Forte said.

"It is fair to say this makes the company's subscription efforts more important and potentially means it may need more than half its revenue to come from subscriptions," he said.