Elon's Lawsuit Just Killed GARM's Ad Cartel... (Literally)

When you mess with the bull, you get the horns folks - and when it comes to Global Alliance for Responsible Media, they just got put in a body bag. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Just two days after Elon the G.O.A.T. accused the nonprofit giant of orchestrating a boycott against X (formerly known as Twitter), they decided to grab their life jackets and close up shop. See: Cutting losses quickly. 

(Source: New York Times) 

To sum up the gist of it (for those not paying attention), Musk had accused the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and its members like Disney and Unilever (think, overpriced soap) for withholding their ad dollars under the guide of “brand safety”. Which is a B.S. way of saying, I don’t agree with your opinions. Read: Definition of hypocrisy.

(Source: Giphy) 

In fact, in addition to Disney, CVS Health, Unilever, Orsted, and Mars withholding billions of dollars of ad revenue from Musk’s social media platform, the lawsuit says 14 or more additional GARM members stopped purchasing advertising between November and December 2022. Including companies like United Airlines and Volkswagen (who were not GARM members). 

(Source: CNN) 

However, once Elon dropped his GTFO bombs on the matter last year, Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, went full boss (literally) mode as she made it worth noting that “No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized”. And I have to admit, she’s 100% correct. 

Yet, although GARM’S members control a whopping 90% of global marketing spend amounting to nearly $1 trillion per year, they saw the writing on the wall that said: Yeah, we are legitimately “skrewed”. 

(Source: Giphy)

According to Stephan Loerke, CEO of the World Federation of Advertisers, it was a tough gut wrenching decision to raise the white flag in the face of Elon Musk, but the reality is that GARM simply didn’t have the resources to fight in court. 

“This decision was not made lightly, but GARM is a not-for-profit organization, and its resources are limited,” - Stephan Loerke told members in an email to break the news. 

(Source: LinkedIn)

Keep in mind, this all comes to a head after the House Judiciary Committee, led by Ohio Representative, Jim Jordan started poking around GARM after he stated the organization was, ““starving disfavored content, or even entire platforms, of advertising dollars needed to survive.”

(Source: House Judiciary Committee)

So naturally, not only was this surrender heavily celebrated by the House, and Elon, but even Ben Shapiro the witty comeback kid (and Democrats worst nightmare), rejoiced in the victory after his testimony, as he tweeted: 

(Source: X) 

(Source: Daily Wire) 

So with that said, what’s the takeaway here?

Well, like in our previous article discussing the matter, it doesn’t really mean much for X, since it’s not publicly traded. However, this saga has more to do with Elon’s namesake than it does a buying opportunity (for now, anyway).

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, while Elon could legit build a billion dollar OnlyFans account with all his Tesla, and Musk fanboys combined, this just adds to the nature of his intimidating aura in the business world. Meaning, it’s evident that Elon means business in everything he does, especially when someone else messes with his business. 

(Source: Fortune) 

Translation: Anybody who messes with Musk, will indeed, F’around and find out. 

Stocks.News holds positions in Disney, Tesla, and United Airlines as mentioned in the article.