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CANNES, France—Elon Musk’s conversation with WPP CEO Mark Read at the Cannes Lions Festival this week didn’t just draw a crowd, but frustrations from agency staffers as well.
After skipping Cannes last year, Musk attended the festival and addressed his “Go fuck yourself” comment to advertisers after they began pulling out of X, formerly Twitter, for fears of ads showing up next to unsafe and hateful content, content sometimes amplified by Musk himself.
Read invited Musk to join him on the Cannes stage to address those comments and the current state of brand safety on the X platform. Following the talk, Musk traveled to Stagwell Sport Beach for a private meeting with some of Stagwell’s clients hosted by CEO Mark Penn.
Multiple sources within WPP expressed frustrations to ADWEEK over Read inviting Musk to Cannes, who has a history of amplifying anti-trans comments on X, especially during Pride Month.
One WPP employee who requested anonymity told ADWEEK that employees are “shocked by the poor judgment of the holding company” and called it “frankly insulting to our agencies and our employees.”
Speaking to ADWEEK today, Read and Penn both stick by their decisions to invite, interview and meet with Musk at Cannes.
Inviting Musk to the main stage
Last week, the Cannes Lions Festival revealed that Musk would join Read in a conversation on the Palais about innovation.
Read told ADWEEK that he viewed the conversation as “a good opportunity for us to hear directly from him, get his thoughts and why he made the statements that he’s made.”
“We thought about everything to do with him speaking,” said Read on whether the team discussed the implications of bringing Musk to Cannes to WPP’s LGBTQ+ employees. “As I said at the start, I don’t agree with everything he’s shared on every topic. I made that clear in the beginning of the talk. And we talked about some of the things that he said in the past.”
Read declined to answer whether LJ Louis, WPP’s global chief talent and inclusion officer, was consulted on the decision to bring Musk to Cannes.
“As I said, I didn’t agree with everything,” said Read. “I disagree with many things Elon said on many topics. We had a chance to ask him about them and the tweets that he’s said that he’s regretted.”
Private meeting on Sport Beach
When Penn heard that Musk was attending Cannes, he thought clients would have questions and want to address Musk face-to-face in a closed meeting.