Twitter kept its pitch to advertisers brief during its NewFront presentation today, as the platform awaits a sale to Elon Musk. The live presentation in New York City lasted only 20 minutes; Snap's marathon session the day prior, in comparison, was nearly two hours long, while Meta, Roku and Amazon were all around an hour and a half.

“It was more of a ‘we’re still here’ move than anything,’” said one marketing executive, who is close with Twitter leadership and spoke about the NewFronts presentation on the condition of anonymity.

It seemed the goal was to show things are business as usual, with Twitter packing the half hour with announcements about publishing partnerships, video sponsorship opportunities, and “brand safety,” the latter of which is top of mind for brands since Musk has suggested looser moderation policies.

“Thirty minutes is awfully short,” said another media and advertising executive, who works closely with Twitter and attended the show.

TJ Adeshola, Twitter’s head of global content partnerships; Robin Wheeler, Twitter’s VP of U.S. client services; and Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief customer officer, spoke at the event. The NewFronts are a moment for platforms to pursue major brand advertising budgets by rolling out new content partnerships. Twitter showed off a World Cup 2022 deal with Fox Sports, which will produce shows for the platform around the tournament.

Twitter execs also talked about publishers like Condé Nast, which also hosted a presentation earlier this week. Condé Nast’s Met Gala, which took place this week, attracted millions of viewers to Twitter livestreams. Twitter also touted its partnership with diverse-owned media properties like Essence magazine and Revolt.

Twitter's presentation comes just a week after Musk made an offer to take Twitter private for $44 billion, a deal the board approved. This has the potential to upend Twitter’s advertising business. The Musk saga has led to a great deal of intrigue around the social media company heading into NewFronts, with a focus on how the company’s current ad leadership would deal with the noise. Musk has been an agitating presence, to say the least, tweeting vague plans about overhauling the business model by tweaking moderation policies in ways that could scare off brands. Twitter made $1.1 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter, and NewFronts are all about signing up advertisers to long-term deals.

“I'm hearing real frustration that Musk doesn't seem to get the platform, care about ads or safety, and tweets grandiose plans that change by the hour,” said another media buyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

This week a group of activists that included Media Matters for America, GLAAD, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Women’s March and Accountable Tech, wrote an open letter to brands saying that “under Musk’s management, Twitter risks becoming a cesspool of misinformation, with your brand attached.”

On Monday, Twitter addressed the Musk deal in a regulatory filing: “Partners can continue to expect our best-in-class customer service, client solutions, and commitment to brand safety … We cannot speculate on changes Elon Musk may make post-closing.”

On Tuesday, Musk tweeted back at the activists, issuing a call to “investigate” who funds them.

Brands are not pulling away from Twitter, but they are watching closely, said a third advertising executive, who attended the NewFronts. The ad exec said that brands asked the ad agency for an official opinion on how to consider Twitter heading into NewFronts. Brands want to know how much they should invest or commit long-term, the exec said. “Clients aren’t looking to pull the plug, they’re just curious, more curious than anything. We told clients it would be three to six months before the deal closes, so if anything drastic happens that won’t be until the third or fourth quarter.”

“Twitter is more flexible than some of the other platforms you can work with,” the exec added, suggesting brands could always turn down the volume of ads as needed.