Mark Read and Mark Penn Defend Meeting With Elon Musk at Cannes

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.

According to one senior marketer familiar with Musk’s meeting at Stagwell Sport Beach, roughly 18 CMOs and high-level marketers were in attendance.

“The idea was that we would have a small group event where big marketers could really directly get to know him and hear his answers to their questions,” Penn told ADWEEK.

The senior marketer who spoke with ADWEEK said marketers “didn’t hold back,” with Musk responding to some tough questions, but the source wouldn’t say exactly what was asked.

At the meeting, Musk explained the different moves X has made, from a PR perspective, as well as AI and the future of the platform. On stage, he explained that AI is being used to improve ad targeting.

The source added that Musk tried to settle some of the controversy around the polarization of the platform.

Overall, the senior marketer said the people in the room viewed the session positively and “appreciated Musk’s time.”

Penn added that Musk didn’t say anything in the meeting that “he hasn’t said outside.” Musk explained how “the platform is developing, that he believes in free speech, and that none of us are going to have jobs or have to work in the future.”

When asked about the message it would send Stagwell’s LGBTQ+ employees for inviting Musk, Penn said, “We are big believers in free speech. And I did not get any complaints about him coming here from really anyone.”

ADWEEK asked whether bringing Musk to Sport Beach was discussed with the full leadership team, specifically chief people officer Stephanie Howley, Penn repeated: “We really didn’t have any complaints relative to him coming to Sport Beach.”

“Part of what they were here to explain was the more mechanized safety elements that they’ve added to the platform,” Penn said, adding that the platform has improved its brand safety approach compared with a year ago, partly thanks to AI and the fact-checking tool Community Notes.

“We are telling clients to absolutely test advertising [on X] and see if it works,” said Penn.