Inside Musk’s private Cannes meeting with Target, the NFL and more marketers

Shortly after Elon Musk attempted to explain his “go f—k yourself” remark to advertisers from the Palais stage, the mercurial owner of X held a closed-door meeting in Cannes on Wednesday with a select group of influential marketers in an attempt to reassure them about the platform’s brand safety, among other topics. Musk spent around 90 minutes with around 20 chief marketing officers and other senior-level marketing executives from brands including the NFL, L’Oréal, Diageo, Bayer, Adobe, American Eagle, Qualcomm and Target, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The hush-hush event took place at Stagwell’s Sport Beach shortly after his widely attended Palais interview with WPP CEO Mark Read, during which Musk said he directed that infamous November diatribe at only some advertisers who he says were trying to limit free speech. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns One person close to the situation said that Musk—who attended the meeting with X CEO Linda Yaccarino—pleaded his case for brands to return to X. The meeting also consisted of high-level conversations around AI, the state of the jobs market and the “future of humanity,” according to people familiar with the meeting. It wasn’t immediately clear what exactly was meant by that last topic. Multiple executives said that the CMOs in the room were nervous about the meeting because they didn’t know what to expect from Musk. One executive said the marketers left feeling positive about the meeting afterward and called it a “brainstorm.” Also read: Musk tries to win back advertisers Musk seemed to have shown his softer side during the meeting, as he was seen entering and leaving the meeting carrying an unidentified child, as evidenced in the above photo taken by a person who asked not to be identified. And if he was trying to slip out quietly, it didn’t work: former NBA star Carmelo Anthony, who was in the middle of a presentation at Sport Beach at the time, spotted Musk and shouted him out on his microphone. Musk was also captured in this post on—of course—X, from Craig Elimeliah, chief creative officer of Stagwell's Code and Theory. This is very meta - welcome @elonmusk to #SportBeach pic.twitter.com/w8W2abEuIy— Craig Elimeliah (@CraigElimeliah) June 19, 2024 As Musk was exiting, he paused for a few minutes to talk with people on the street who were peppering him with questions before he got into his car, as seen in this video taken by Ad Age. Stagwell declined to comment on the meeting. Some people speculated that Mark Penn, its chairman and CEO, had likely helped broker the meeting. Penn shared his thoughts on Musk earlier in the week. “We’re supporters of the direction that he’s taking X, which is to be a free, open, less biased platform,” Penn said in an interview with Ad Age on Sunday. “I think ultimately he is going to be successful in that. So I’m glad he’s coming here and taking things on directly. The worst thing is to have these platforms thought of as really tilting to one side or the other. I think that he is interrupting that, and planting a flag for free speech.”

Inside Musk’s private Cannes meeting with Target, the NFL and more marketers

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