So my one time (VERY briefly) colleague Linda Yaccarino is back in the news, and yet again, the outpouring of disbelief and sympathy from those who claim to know her far better than I do has been almost as newsworthy as the statement she made. As HUFFPOST’s David Moye attempted to empathically report earlier this week:
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, posted a video on Tuesday announcing the social media platform formerly known as Twitter is suing a group of advertisers it accused of boycotting the company. However, all anyone noticed were her many bizarre, stilted and, yes, awkward hand gestures during her nearly-two-minute video that was posted on ― where else? ― X.com
In the video and an accompanying text post, Yaccarino discusses a report released last month by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s report entitled “GARM’s (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) Harm,” which reportedly disclosed evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X.
It’s a personal topic for Yaccarino’s boss Elon Musk, who famously hurt his own quest for advertising moolah last year when he told potential advertisers to “go fuck yourself” if they wouldn’t advertise on X.
But viewers watching the video would be forgiven if they zoned out over Yaccarino’s taking points and focused instead on her stilted movements, such as touching her chest with her hand, pointing up at the sky and pointing her finger at the viewer.
We could show photos, but they really don’t convey the bizarreness of Yaccarino’s hand gestures to their complete absurdity.
Well, we did both. Sue me, Elon.
And Elon, let me assure you I’m not one who’s convinced Linda’s soul needs to be saved, or that what she delivered to the free world was necessarily done at gunpoint. There are many of her longtime associates who I also know that have advised me that she has held similar beliefs to her boss for quite a number of years long before she found the chance to become a CEO after NBCUniversal passed over her when such an opportunity opened up. And these same insiders also remind she’s being paid more than enough to do the job she’s done as well as anyone has in traditional media over the many decades since our paths crossed.
Besides, even amidst all of the political and incideniary discourse she managed to slip in a few decent research-based bullet points in her “open letter to advertisers”.
And as this Statista graphic shows, it continues to stack up weakly against its main competition.
A major ad industry group is shutting down, days after Elon Musk-owned X filed a lawsuit that claimed the group illegally conspired to boycott advertising on his platform.
“GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances,” the group said in a statement Friday. “GARM therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue its activities.”
“No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized. This is an important acknowledgement and a necessary step in the right direction. I am hopeful that it means ecosystem-wide reform is coming,” Yaccarino posted on X Thursday.
Yet the advertisers themselves, including the likes of CVS, Unilever, Mars and the Danish energy company Ørsted who were specifically called out in the lawsuit filing, will still need convincing that in the world of hard choices, the benefits of advertising on Twitter/X outweigh what they see as the risks of consumer backlash.
And Linda, I know you remember as much as I do the telling lesson of how opinions change in the wake of unqualified success that we learned when reruns of THREE’S COMPANY debuted in syndication back in the days when we were writing and analyzing programming strengths and risks for sales teams to crow about. But in case you’ve been more distracted than I have been of late (understandable, given the demands of your new gig), let me remind you:
THREE’S COMPANY, as successful as it was for ABC in prime time, was on a number of advertiser and agency hit lists because of what was seen as objectionable content. When reruns were sold into a crowded syndication lineup in the early ’80s that included the launches of less controversial off-network series such as WKRP IN CINCINNATI and MORK AND MINDY, not to mention established hits such as HAPPY DAYS AGAIN and M*A*S*H, agency buyers were instructed to avoid THREE’S COMPANY in station rotations much as their network counterparts were urged to find “safer” alternatives on ABC. Stations offered to drop their rate cards in response, which with some less concerned clients such as movie studios buyers like us liberally utilized. Especially when its first ratings books showed that THREE’S COMPANY was often delivering substantially higher ratings, especially in target demos, than their competitors.
By the time its first season was complete, THREE’S COMPANY was the top-rated off-network situation comedy. And, almost predictably, when the next batch of 52-week buys for major advertisers came up, a lot of those “hit lists” no longer included THREE’S COMPANY.
So for anyone who would like to think this is somehow all about political leanings, think again. Get those usage numbers up, Yakko. And when one looks at the lowest-hanging fruit to drive that engagement as Chris did, the spectrum of possibilities appears pretty broad:
According to the latest data (March 2024), Elon Musk’s 175.1 million followers make him the most popular account on X. Barack Obama is second with 131.9 million, and Justin Bieber is third with 111.2 million. (This) table...shows the top 20 most popular Twitter accounts.
If Jack, Janet and Chrissy can change minds with hard numbers, Justin, Barack and their friends from music and “football” should be able to do the same.
Now stop posting videos and get back to work.
Until next time…