Note to Linda Yaccarino: What You Have to Do to Fix X
Acts of commerce do not require intelligence.
Dear Linda,
This is an open letter from someone who also believes in “free speech” -- so much so I am going to give it to you straight, unvarnished.
You must have an intervention with Elon and get him help immediately. There is no other way to save X, salvage your reputation or plan for the future.
I think it is clear to everyone that something is seriously wrong with Elon Musk. Linda, it happens. Sometimes to the very best and brightest. Sometimes, despite all the genius, the accomplishments and the power, a person goes off, becomes unstable and self-destructive. Now is one of those times.
Elon has lost touch with reality. From a simple dollars and sense perspective, he has lost touch with the mission. Advertisers and marketers of American goods and services would put free speech somewhere between next to last to dead last on their corporate agenda. They were perfectly happy when Hee Haw, the 1969 hit TV show, was their ad vehicle of choice. Acts of commerce do not require intelligence, arguments, or any other type of conflict. In fact, these are anathema to corporate America. Witness the overnight demise of the Kanye West brand. Controversy, antisemitism, and inane observations can and will bring the curtain down on an endorsement deal, no matter how lucrative. Just ask Adidas how it felt to write down a half billion because of his inanity. Capitalism abhors controversy…unless it is proven to be profitable.
Free speech, or as you recently put it, “information independence,” is clearly a personal crusade for Elon. One he and his pals were happy to put up forty-four billion for, but that doesn’t make it even a passing concern for the rest of us. It appeals only to the millions of fringe cranks happy to promote whatever fevered conspiracy enters their mind in the second they press post. Using this method to generate traffic that will coexist with American marketing goals is a sure-fire miss. When Elon amplifies fringe and clearly unhinged Pizzagate tweets or the Great Replacement ones, it is a middle finger to the Fortune 500 crowd. It says, “This is my ball and bat and I will play the game as I want.” When the advertisers balk at this absurd proposition, it is not smart to accuse them of “blackmail.”
I can only imagine how new this territory is for you, coming out of the C suites of some of the staidest companies in America. You are in uncharted territory. If your previous CEOs said one hundredth of what Elon has, what would their longevity be? A day? A week? There is no board currently constituted that would allow for the behavior Elon exhibits hourly.
From the looks of it, I think X (formally a rational company) is corporate toast. X can’t be redeemed. Elon is unstable; his has free speech quest has morphed into a Turrets Syndrome of libertarian nonsense. No one can predict when and what he will blurt out to his 160 million followers, how toxic it will be, or what topic will be on his impulsive mind. That uncertainty crosses X off the ad buyers list.
Linda, in my media career of over forty years, I have witnessed self-destructive behavior from the best and brightest over and over again. I have seen security escort CEOs to rehab. Seen drug-addled producers destroy themselves in front of studio heads as well as cast and crew. Seen delusional talent let the voices in their heads lead them off the lot and into the unemployment line. Seen stubborn directors reject legitimate compromises as they watched their projects were taken from their hands. Seen celebrity endorsements in the tens of millions evaporate overnight when they were exposed for uttering a prohibited word. What I am telling you is that Elon’s behavior is not that unusual… it’s just more visible because of how rich and famous he is. However, the end is going to be the same as above. As Jimmy Cliff sang, the harder, they come the harder they fall.
So please consider an intervention and some retreat/rehab. Try to get Elon to acknowledge something is amiss. American loves rehab stories; sympathy will flow from many of his current critics. Think of the humility bonus that would accrue. How you approach this is unknown to me. I don’t know him. You do.
It’s on you now. If you don’t, I am afraid to say you become an accomplice in a communications outlier that the mayor of Paris justly called “a global sewer.” I opted out of Twitter several months ago because Twitter/X has become an enabler of hate and divisiveness of lies and most dangerous of all potential violence. There are thousands of unstable armed people out there. They have, in the past, caused real death and destruction when triggered by falsehoods. This is what frightens corporate America and frankly, me.
Walk away from the danger now. The X situation is no longer amusing or even controversial; it’s potentially lethal. No career is worth that risk.
Jonathan Russo was in the advertising and entertainment world for over four decades. He worked at Foote, Cone and Belding, Omnicom, Interpublic, WME and Artists Agency, the latter he co-owned. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, he and his business partner were responsible for well over a billion dollars in client media buys, celebrity endorsements, and program development across the broadcast and cable spectrums as well as sponsorships of specific programs for Fortune 500 companies.