Elon Musk came to Cannes to make amends with advertisers, and then tell them AI will take their jobs. 

New: Inside Musk’s private Cannes meeting with marketers

On Wednesday, Musk, the owner of X, formerly Twitter, sat down with WPP CEO Mark Read in his first appearance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as he tries to coax brands back. Musk and X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino are both meeting with chief marketing officers and agency leaders at Cannes, taking private meetings, according to multiple advertising leaders who spoke with Ad Age on condition of anonymity. X has a space at the Carlton hotel, and Yaccarino, a veteran in the industry, has been spotted at high-profile events such as MediaLink and iHeartMedia’s Lenny Kravitz concert at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Tuesday night.

After his chat at the Palais, Musk then went to Stagwell’s Sport Beach for more alone time with ad execs. The Cannes charm offensive is a departure for X and Musk, who has had a tense relationship in ad circles. Also, X has been less visible at the largest advertising events since Musk bought Twitter in 2022. X hasn’t attended CES or hosted an official IAB digital NewFronts show since he purchased the social platform. 

Meanwhile, at last year’s New York Times DealBook the brash billionaire told advertisers to “go f—k” themselves, perhaps his lowest moment with adland.

Now, at Cannes, Musk claimed he only told some advertisers to “f—k” themselves. Musk drew a large crowd at his main stage talk, with lines forming at least two hours before the noon event. There were fans, admirers and the curious filling the Palais just to get in.

Whether brands and agency leaders will be receptive to the message is another question, however. Some advertisers told Ad Age they had no interest in hearing from Musk, who has been antagonistic to causes and social issues that they care about. The divisiveness on X has been one of the main sticking points for brands, and Musk is the most powerful voice on X with 187.7 million followers.

WPP and Read have been public about giving Musk more chances with advertisers, and last year Read told brands the platform was more stable. Read proved to be a friendly voice for Musk at Cannes, as Musk addressed his unfiltered strategy. Musk tried to resell the concept of X as a “free speech” platform, and then he discussed his existential dread over AI.

Musk addresses F-bomb

Read opened the talk by seemingly explaining why X is still relevant for the ad community even if many brands abandoned the place. “It’s a pretty important platform in our industry,” Read said. Then Read added: “I don’t agree with Elon on everything.” To which Musk feigned surprise, saying: “What?”

Read was also quick to ask about the elephant in the room, too. “Back in November you had a message to us, you told us to sort of go fuck ourselves,” Read said. “It’s a serious question, why did you say that?”

Elon wiggled back from the bold statement slightly. “Well, first of all, it wasn’t to advertisers as a whole,” Musk said.

Musk explained a position he has long espoused—that he wants X to be a “free speech” platform, and that he would give up ad dollars in favor of lighter censorship rules. He also reiterated that he thinks advertisers have the right not to appear near content they don’t like, they just can’t dictate his X policies, overall.

“There were advertisers who were insisting on censorship,” Musk said.

Musk has bucked the industry’s guardrails and gatekeepers, which have been established and adopted by many platforms, that work on applying filters to hate speech, harassment and adult material.

Read then told the audience that Musk does “believe in brand safety,” but X shouldn’t “be under pressure to make that compromise between money and freedom of speech.” 

Musk on AI

Musk had words of caution for the crowd regarding AI and how it would be able to take over everyone’s jobs. And that’s a message that could have been chilling for an ad industry that already fears the introduction of machines into the creative process. AI has its benefits because it will take over all the work, but that will lead to a “crisis of meaning,” Musk said.

“The most likely outcome is one of abundance, where goods and services are available to anyone,” Musk said, “that there’s no shortage of goods and services for anyone on earth.”

The tradeoff is that “there will have to be a crisis of meaning,” Musk said, “if the AI can do everything you could do, but better, than what is the point of doing things?”

After the talk, some audience members said Musk’s musings on AI were a bit chilling, and Read said so as well. “You’re supposed to inspire people, not tell them they’re not going to have a job,” Read said.

Also read: Influencer Tinx slams AI

Musk’s hot takes on X

Read also asked Musk if he had any regrets about posts he has made or shared on X.

“I mean not every post I make is a banger,” Musk said.

In November, Musk endorsed a post on X about an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which is what started the latest bout of bad blood with marketers. Musk also has been vocal on X about his personal politics and world affairs. “It’s better to be real than to go through a filter,” Musk said.

Musk on advertising

Read tried to get Musk to explain his thoughts on advertising, given that Cannes is a creativity festival. Musk had an anodyne opinion on what makes a good ad. “I’m actually a fan of advertising that is artistically interesting,” Musk said.

Musk also explained how X’s ad system would operate, and it did not cover any fresh ground. “We are focused on having ads be shown to people who would find the ad interesting,” Musk said. “So that is something we have done.”

Musk also made an appeal to brands to be on X because of the major decision-makers who use the platform. One such individual came to mind, who could be the perfect target for an ad. “If somebody were trying to reach me with an ad that [X] would be the place to do it,” Musk said.