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CANNES, France — Elon Musk clarified the “Go f**k yourself” comment he made to advertisers last year in much more measured remarks on Wednesday at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Why it matters: His appearance at the annual ad conference this week is seen as an attempt to win back ad dollars to X.

Driving the news: “First of all, it wasn’t to advertisers as a whole. It was with respect to freedom of speech,” Musk said. “It is important to have a global free speech platform where people with a wide range of opinions can voice their views. In some cases there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship.”

• “We’re going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money,” he said.

Flashback: At November’s 2023 DealBook Summit in New York, Musk said “Go f**k yourself” to advertisers who were boycotting X over antisemitism and other hate speech on the platform.

Musk’s appearance on Wednesday drew thousands of Cannes attendees to the Lumiere Theatre in the Palais des Festivals.

• The annual advertising festival attracts tens of thousands of advertisers from brands and ad agencies along with executives from ad platforms and ad tech.

Zoom in: Musk elaborated on his acceptance of advertising during the 45-minute conversation with Mark Read, CEO of ad giant WPP.

• “Of course, advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands. That’s totally fine,” Musk said. “What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform.”
• Read responded that Musk’s comments showed an understanding of brand safety.
• “I believe in sort of freedom of choice,” Musk said. “Advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they think is compatible to their brand.”

Zoom out: X competes with other social media giants like Meta, Snap and Reddit for ad dollars. Back when it was known as Twitter, the company used to have a large presence at Cannes Lions as a way to court advertisers.

• When Read asked why an advertiser should consider X, Musk spoke to X’s overall support of relevant ads, brand safety and its unique audience.
• “Probably the biggest thing for the X platform is if you’re trying to reach senior decision makers, if you want to reach the most influential people in the world … then the X platform is by far the best,” Musk said.

What’s next: X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who is also at the festival, will be speaking later on Wednesday at Women’s Sports House, hosted by Axios and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment.

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