Volkswagen Is The Latest Company To Pause Advertising On Twitter
To put it lightly, things have been a bit of a mess since Elon Musk took over Twitter as the CEO and sole owner. Between the firing the entire board of directors, pending lawsuits from former employees, new qualifications for verification, and a host of other stories popping up seemingly by the minute, it's been a hectic week for Twitter. The takeover has already convinced a number of users to deactivate their accounts and search for safer waters with new social media sites and has likely caused some to stop posting altogether.
In the midst of all the confusion for current and former Twitter employees and users of the site, one thing is certain: quite a few advertisers aren't happy. General Motors, one of the largest automakers in the world already pulled the plug on advertising on the platform earlier this week and several other brands like Pfizer followed suit in the wake of the new ownership chaos.
Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini ads are paused
Today it was announced that Volkswagen Group told its family of brands to suspend advertising on the now-beleaguered social media platform. Volkswagen Group consists of not only Volkswagen, makers of cars like the Jetta and Golf GTI, but brands like Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati, Cupra, and Seat. Losing just GM with its four total brands would be a huge blow to any social media platform, now Twitter has to manage losing ads from the additional eight brands under Volkswagen's umbrella.
Advertisers en masse are seeing Twitter as a potential poison to its advertising revenue, and it's been less than a week since Musk took over. It's not an optimistic sign when two of the largest automakers that have ever existed won't touch Twitter with a 10-foot pole. As of now, the advertisements from Volkswagen group are temporarily paused according to Reuters and no timeline has been given for when the group will decide to start ads up again.