“X is pleased to have reached an agreement with Unilever and to continue our partnership with them on the platform. Today’s news is the first part of the ecosystem-wide solution and we look forward to more resolution across the industry,” tweeted the platform.
Unilever said in a statement it had “reached an agreement with X, which has committed to meeting our responsibility standards to ensure the safety and performance of our brands on the platform”.
Unilever products include Dove soaps, Hellmann’s condiments and Pepsodent toothpaste.
Lawsuit continues against other companies
Regardless of the settlement with Unilever, the lawsuit against the other named companies continues.
Elon Musk’s X’s antitrust lawsuit claims the platform lost revenue after the World Federation of Advertisers’Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and four of its members, Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Ørsted conspired together and boycotted the platform.
The boycott followed the hosting of offensive material on the site and the site’s alleged failure to meet brand safety standards.
However, the social media platform then accused them of boycotting the site based on political ideology and violating US antitrust laws by taking their advertising business elsewhere.
It claims that despite X offering brand safety options that would allow them to pick where their ads would appear, the advertisers still refused to utilise the platform.
This led to Musk telling the boycotting advertisers to “go fuck yourself” less than a year ago.
He also tweeted. “We tried being nice for 2 years and got nothing but empty words. Now, it is war.”
Pushing an agenda
X is saying that it carries a lot of weight, and by pushing its members to boycott it can silence any kind of speech it wants.
Its case is based on proving that GARM acted on the whims of its most powerful members, not its externally communicated brand safety goals.
In August, GARM shut down, citing a lack of funds reports.
In a statement on its website, GARM said,” GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances.”
“X CEO Linda Yaccarino applauded the shutdown of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, saying, ‘No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized’.”
Fairness of lawsuit
The fairness of the lawsuit has been questioned.
PC Magazine says that in August, a Washington think tank, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), stated, “companies have the right to make independent decisions about where to allocate their advertising budgets based on a variety of factors, including brand safety and alignment with their values”.
Its VP Daniel Castro said the lawsuit “undermines the basic principle of free market competition and the autonomy of businesses to manage their reputations”. However despite this X’s legal push seems to be working to some degree.
Unilever’s decision to make a deal with X does point to some level of concern about the case among big brands.
In addition, Social Media Today says “X’s legal filing does make some relevant points about market forces dictating the success or failure of online ad platforms either way.”
Biggest recorded pullback
Regardless of this a recent Warc report predicts a decline in X’s ad revenue in 2024 of 6.4% globally and 5.1% in the US.
“However, compared to its startling 46.4% decrease in 2023, it marks something of a stabilisation for the Elon Musk-owned platform, largely due to political ad spend. However, marketers remain concerned with brand safety and X’s much-publicised issues with bots,” says Warc.
Kantar research has found that currently X’s ad revenue is reportedly down around 50% from what it had been before Musk purchased the app and it continues to decline as user numbers drop as Musk continues to amplify divisive political opinions in the app (his own and others).
The report found:
A net 26% of marketers have reported plans to reduce ad spend on X in 2025 – the biggest recorded pullback from any major global ad platform.
Marketers’ trust in adverts on X, historically low, has decreased further under Musk’s leadership, from 22% in 2022 to 12% in 2024.
Only 4% of marketers think adverts on X provide brand safety (in contrast to Google, which comes top for brand safety at 39%).
X scores outside of the global top 10 for trust and for the perception of how innovative advertising on the platform is. This contrasts with TikTok, the most innovative advertising publisher for the fifth consecutive year, and YouTube, the most trusted.
In the report Gonca Bubani, global thought leadership director – media at Kantar, says that advertisers have been moving their marketing spend away from X for several years.
“The stark acceleration of this trend in the past 12 months means a turnaround currently seems unlikely.
“Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use. X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next – it’s difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment.
“Ironically, decreasing spend by marketers on X will make consumers happier with the platform as they come face to face with fewer ads.”
The findings are included in Kantar’s Media Reactions 2024 report, an annual study exploring the evolving media landscape.
The study, based on interviews with 18,000 consumers in 27 markets and 1,000 senior marketers globally, also reports that YouTube remains the ad platform marketers most prefer, while, for consumers, Amazon and TikTok share the top spot.
