Elon Musk Tells Fleeing Twitter Advertisers To “Go F***” Themselves

Dutch angles mean things are going well, right?Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times (Getty Images)

Usually, when you or I purchase an expensive things — a car, a motorcycle, a nice set of tools — we try to keep them in good shape. After all, these are sizable investments, and we want them to last us a good long while. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, apparently, does not share that line of thinking.

Walter Isaacson On Elon Musk(s)

In a talk at the DealBook Summit earlier this week, Musk talked about his rash of interactions with antisemites on Twitter — the same interactions that caused many advertisers to flee the site. Rather than expressing deep contrition, according to the Verge, Musk took a slightly different approach:

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.” He singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who discussed not wanting Disney to be affiliated with Musk while onstage earlier in the day. “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience.”

If advertisers don’t return, Musk said, “what this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company.” He seemed almost resigned to the possibility, speaking of it almost as though X were a martyr and advertisers the enemy. “That is what everybody on Earth will know,” he said. “We’ll be gone, and it’ll be gone because of an advertiser boycott.”