X/Twitter CEO in Damage-Control Mode After Musk Tells Fleeing Advertisers to ‘Go F— Yourself’

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Linda Yaccarino, who’s already facing an uphill battle in winning over advertisers to X, has her work cut out for her to restore trust with big marketers after her boss profanely dissed those who had suspended advertising from the platform.

Almost six months into her gig as CEO of X, Yaccarino continues to try to clean up PR messes created by Elon Musk, the shoot-from-the-lip megabillionaire and self-appointed defender of free speech who owns the company formerly known as Twitter.

Musk, speaking Wednesday at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, accused advertisers who pulled ads from X — over his support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory — of “blackmail” and dropped a couple of F-bombs to underscore his ire. “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising?

Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself. Is that clear?” Musk said on stage. He called out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who earlier at the conference had said the tech mogul’s comment made a partnership with X “not necessarily a positive one for us.” Asked about Iger’s remarks, Musk said, “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel — don’t advertise.” Yaccarino, one month before she accepted Musk’s offer to oversee X/Twitter business operations as CEO, had pressed her soon-to-be-boss at an ad conference to explain whether he had “de-risked” the chance of Twitter advertisers’ campaigns “landing in these awful, hateful places.” On Wednesday, following Musk’s tirade, she tried to explain what Musk was getting.