Paris Hilton’s media company suspends ads on X, one month after agreeing to touted partnership with the platform

Author: Editors Desk Source: CNN:::

November 22, 2023 at 06:53

Paris Hilton attends 2023 GQ Men of the Year at Bar Marmont on November 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

CNN — Paris Hilton’s entertainment company 11:11 Media has pulled an advertising campaign from Elon Musk’s X just one month after announcing an exclusive partnership with the platform, becoming the latest brand to halt ad spending on the site formerly known as Twitter over concerns about antisemitism and pro-Nazi content on the site.

“11:11 Media made the decision to immediately pull the campaign from the platform,” Bruce Gersh, 11:11 Media’s president and chief operating officer, told CNN on Tuesday.

The decision by Hilton’s company to pull its advertising is a blow to X and the platform’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, who announced a major promotional partnership with Hilton just last month. The deal, which was touted by Yaccarino as a long-term, “official partnership” between Hilton, 11:11 Media, and X, aimed to create “a launchpad for new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce, Spaces, and so much more.” The deal also established a revenue-sharing agreement between the parties.

Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chief who has been tasked with wooing wary advertisers back to X despite Musk’s tumultuous leadership, declared Hilton the “queen of pop culture” and described the partnership as “a new era” that would reside exclusively on X.

A spokesperson for Hilton declined to comment on whether the suspension of 11:11’s ad campaign also meant the end of Hilton’s partnership with X. A spokesperson for X also did not immediately respond.

Hilton remains active on the platform via her personal account, @ParisHilton, where she has amassed 16.6 million followers.

The decision by 11:11 Media to pull its advertising campaign from X comes after at least half a dozen brands also paused their ad spending on X last week over concerns about pro-Nazi content and Musk’s embrace of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on the platform.

IBM halted its ad spend on X on Thursday after a report from progressive media watchdog Media Matters showed its ad had run alongside pro-Nazi content on X. Other major brands, including Disney and Paramount, followed suit on Friday, but did not specify their reasoning for pulling their ad spending from X.