Elon Musk Has Driven Away Half Of Twitter's Top Advertisers Already

• An asterisk indicates a company has issued a statement or was publicly reported as stopping its ads on Twitter and subsequently confirmed. Otherwise, companies identified on this list are “quiet quitters,” based on a Media Matters analysis of Pathmatics data. These companies were previously advertising on Twitter, but then stopped for a significant period of time following direct outreach, controversies, and warnings from media buyers.
• Abbott Laboratories
• Allstate Corporation
• AMC Networks
• American Express Company
• AT&T
• Big Heart Petcare
• BlackRock, Inc.
• BlueTriton Brands, Inc.
• Boston Beer Company
• CA Lottery (California State Lottery)
• CenturyLink (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Chanel
• Chevrolet*
• Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.*
• Citigroup, Inc.
• CNN
• Dell
• Diageo
• DirecTV
• Discover Financial Services
• Fidelity
• First National Realty Partners
• Ford*
• Heineken N.V.
• Hewlett-Packard (HP)
• Hilton Worldwide
• Inspire Brands, Inc.
• Jeep*
• Kellogg Company
• Kohl's Department Stores, Inc.
• Kyndryl*
• LinkedIn Corporation
• MailChimp (The Rocket Science Group)
• Marriott International, Inc.
• Mars Petcare
• Mars, Incorporated
• Merck & Co. (Merck Sharp & Dohme MSD)*
• Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.)
• MoneyWise (Wise Publishing, Inc.)
• Nestle
• Novartis AG*
• Pernod Ricard
• PlayPass
• The Coca-Cola Company
• The Kraft Heinz Company
• Tire Rack
• Verizon
• Wells Fargo
• Whole Foods Market IP
• Yum! Brands

Despite these advertising losses, Elon Musk (who acquired the platform in late October) has continued his rash of brand unsafe actions — including amplifying conspiracy theories, unilaterally reinstating banned accounts such as that of former President Donald Trump, courting and engaging with far-right accounts, and instituting a haphazard verification scheme that allowed extremists and scammers to purchase a blue check. This last move, in particular, opened the platform up to a variety of fraud and brand imitations.

(Snack food company Mondelez International has also reportedly stopped advertising on Twitter citing concerns about hate speech on the platform. However, ads for two of Mondelez’s major brands – Oreo and Ritz – have recently been running at high volume, accounting for approximately $600,000 in ad spending since November 9.)