Pending Business: “Go F-Yourself”
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
When it comes to advertisers who cancel, Elon Musk said it loud and clear at the NY Times Dealbook Summit, “Go F-Yourself.” He claimed advertisers who objected to content on X were “blackmailing him with money” by canceling ad campaigns on his X platform.
C’mon, Elon. I guess you never made the sales calls many of us have made pitching Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, or any of the many in talk radio who made the dreaded “no buy” list because an advertiser was alienated by their political lean, or content. Maybe Elon forgot that many advertisers feel the feedback of their customers and reflect customer input in their marketing dollars.
Many of us who made those sales calls tried to work alongside the content objections voiced by advertisers. The goal was to earn the advertiser’s dollars, not consider a cancellation as “blackmail.” A loud and clear, “Go F-Yourself,” was and still is the best way to kill the customer, torch the relationship, as your general manager, owner, stockholders, and about everyone including the wife and kids are amazed at your out-of-control rant.
Michael Richards, a.k.a. Kramer of Seinfeld fame, calls it “canceling yourself.” He should know. It seems after careful review Musk may be feeling the pain of his famous F-bomb message to “X” advertisers. Elon is now repackaging his pitch to include an A.I. component that could blunt those content objections. Will A.I. step in and keep the content compatible with the goals and objectives of those advertisers who cancelled X?
Wow, why didn’t I think of that? Eliminate good old-fashioned human judgement to understand the content the advertiser is identifying as incompatible with their goals. Maybe or maybe not. Think about how many of your advertisers listen to your talent and offer you, the seller, content feedback. Like the saying goes, many advertisers buy where they listen.
Back to the F-bomb comment. It is hard to be critical of one of the wealthiest people on the planet, but in this one instance, even a billionaire learned from his missteps. As time passed, perhaps cooler heads prevailed and those at X learned what those of us who made those early “no buy” list sales calls learned:
1. Advertisers who control budgets do not like to be told to “Go F-yourself”
2. Content cancellations are not “blackmail.” Those cancellations are based in:
a. Customer feedback
b. Advertiser culture
c. Misaligned goals
Next time you get the urge to blurt out your frustrations, remember a basic tenet of sales, “Never say anything that is too big to eat.”
Steve Lapa is the president of Lapcom Communications Corp. based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Lapcom is a media sales, marketing, and development consultancy. Contact Steve Lapa via email at: Steve@Lapcomventures.com.
Twitter. In the 2024 Infinite Dial, 19% of the total population in the U.S. are using X – a 30% drop. Edison says, “While The Infinite Dial has recorded many incremental changes over its long history, a 30% change in any metric year-over-year is incredibly rare and noteworthy, acknowledging that in 2022 and 2023 the survey referred to the service as ‘Twitter’ and in 2024 it referred to the service as ‘X (formerly known as Twitter).’ Keep in mind this is not a measure of subscribers or Twitter/X accounts, but a measure of people who say they are ‘currently ever’ using the service. In addition to this overall usage drop, Twitter/X saw declines in monthly and weekly usage.” 
Accusing social media giant Meta of pilfering former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” application, Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over “Threads,” Meta’s text-based “Twitter killer” platform. In a letter addressed to Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro argues that Meta used Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to build Threads. Flatly dismissing Spiro’s letter, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone states on Threads, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.” Heretofore silent on the launch of Threads, Twitter executive chair/chief technical officer Elon Musk late last week backed Spiro’s claims stating, “Competition is fine – cheating is not.” In addition, Twitter chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino tweeted that Twitter is “often imitated – but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.” According to Zuckerberg, Threads drew more than 30 million sign-ups within 48 hours of last Wednesday night’s (7/5) launch; that number has reportedly now more than tripled, exceeding the 100-million mark.
talk hosts he might be able to beat in a cage match, used the recently published 2023 TALKERS Heavy Hundred to muse over potential opponents. Kaye – ranked #81 on this year’s Heavy Hundred – says he’s pretty sure Sean Hannity (#1 on the Heavy Hundred) would kill him. 
Twitter CEO Elon Musk told NPR reporter Bobby Allyn that Twitter dropped the labels after a suggestion from author Walter Isaacson, who is reported to be writing a biography of Musk. NPR said it was suspending use of the Twitter platform as a result of the labels. NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara says the company has nothing new to say on the matter. Twitter also put the labels on the BBC, PBS and Canada’s CBC. 
content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.” Twitter owner Elon Musk replied to NPR’s protestations with two words – “Seems accurate.” NPR president and CEO John Lansing said the company was disturbed to see the “state-affiliated Media” tag slapped on its tweets and calls it “unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way.” 
