WPP CEO Mark Read didn’t muck about when he interviewed billionaire Elon Musk on stage at Cannes Lions.
“Back in November you had a message to us, the advertising industry. You told us to go fuck ourselves," said Read.
“It’s a serious question. Why did you say that and what did you mean by that?”
Musk, the owner of X, formerly Twitter, in November told an interviewer: “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, go fuck yourself.”
He was responding to a possible advertiser boycott of the social media platform, sparked by the withdrawal of major brands over hate speech and ads appearing next to toxic posts.
At Cannes, Musk told Read: “It wasn’t to advertisers as a whole. It was with respect to freedom of speech.
“I think it is important to have a global free speech platform, where people from a wider range of opinions can voice their views.”
“In some cases, there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship.
“At the end of the day … if we have to make a choice between censorship and losing money … or free speech and losing money, we’re going to choose the second.”
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