Following the exodus of advertisers from X, formerly Twitter, over concerns about anti-Semitic content on the site, The campaign had been a high-profile win for X, as it would have seen Hilton promote key X features such as live video, live e-commerce,
Hilton had even contributed a custom, bright pink icon for Premium X subscribers.
The terms of the agreement were confidential, but included a revenue sharing component, although we understand not in Premium upgrades to gain access to the new icon.
tech/paris-hilton-x-ads/”>cnn was the first to report on the deal’s implosion, citing concerns about anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi content on the site as factors in 11:11 Media’s decision.
“11:11 Media made the decision to immediately remove the campaign from the platform,” Bruce Gersh, president and chief operating officer of 11:11 Media, told the outlet.
Hilton’s media company is the latest in a long line of brands that have paused or stopped their spending on X as a result of concerns about brand safety, joining other big names such as Apple, Disney, Comcast, IBM, Warner Bros., Paramount, Lionsgate, and others. Brands are concerned about the reputational damage that could occur if their ads appeared alongside hate speech and anti-Semitic content. Despite assurances from X CEO Linda Yaccarino that X has brand safety controls in place, a Media Matters report showed how X was running ads alongside hateful content. X, however, claimed that Media Matters manipulated its service, causing ads to appear, rather than having found them in the wild. He then filed a defamation suit.
But even X’s own complaint doesn’t dispute that the ads were real and running alongside hate speech, it just didn’t like that Media Matters found a scenario where the ads could bypass that way.
Given these concerns, as well as Musk’s own endorsement of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on the platform, many advertisers are reconsidering their spending on , X Ad’s business was on track to record a 54.4% year-over-year decline in global ad spending, from 2022 to 2023. Musk had also publicly stated that 60%, following pressure from the Anti-Defamation League, which accused the owner of anti-Semitism. (Musk, in turn, threatened to sue the ADL as well.)
