The app formerly known as Twitter just dropped a fresh ad — but, either through malice or incompetence, the video roasted its own platform while showcasing how risky it can be for advertisers.
“Welcome to the global town square,” read the opening line of the ad, which then perused the X timeline — a risky move at the best of times.
Along the way, it passed a post that said, “the timeline algo is dying fr it’s becoming mediocre engagement maxxed on low effort repost accounts and dating discourse.”
Oops.
But it gets worse. It then swiped past a scathing post from user Right Wing Cope, criticizing X owner Elon Musk for his attacks on the ADL.
“Twitter’s value has fallen by at least 50%, and Elon is blaming it all on the Jews,” it read “Masterful gambit sir.”
Other posts were just depressing. Software engineer and researcher Molly White first spotted the self-dunking tweets and highlighted many other curious choices for a self-promoting ad, including users’ stories of workplace discrimination, critiques of capitalism, and the astronomical price of housing.
“You’ve been here before for news, sports, and culture,” the ad said as it scrolled past the doom and gloom.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino — the same person trying to convince everyone that the platform is totally brand-safe — initially shared the ad. She later deleted it and fired out a new version, saying it was “a hint of what’s to come…(in higher res).”
What she didn’t mention was the ad was reworked to remove some of the most egregious tweets. Apparently, “higher res” is slang for “without the embarrassing roasts.”
User Right Wing Cope summed up the gaffe pretty well:
“Twitter just published a video ad including one of my posts that was mocking Elon Musk tanking the value of this site by being antisemitic,” they wrote. ”Masterful gambit, Linda.”
Masterful gambit indeed — and from the person who wants you to trust her with your brand safety.
The call is coming from inside the house.
Linda was hired to make X look safer for advertisers, given half of the platform’s top 1,000 advertisers stopped spending on it by mid-February.
But she can’t even keep her own brand safe.