Walmart makes a major move following Elon Musk advertiser comments

As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart  (WMT) - Get Free Report has a lot to answer for on a day to day basis. 

Typically, that means solving for logistical quandaries, making sure it's keeping up with peer competitors (and maintaining its edge, in many cases), and keeping its customers safe. 

Related: Walmart adding a convenient new store feature customers will love

The secret to Walmart's success hasn't come overnight. The superstore, which has a location within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population, has spent decades developing consumer trust and iterating so it can pick up even more — or more frequent — customers.

And brand trust is of utmost importance, and for Walmart this usually means delivering quality products at competitive value, and very rarely weeding into debates about identity politics, culture wars, individuals, or other potential inflammatory topics. 

This means that while other retailers, like Target  (TGT) - Get Free Report, have gotten mired in the constant tug of war that is American political dialogue on social media, it largely stayed above the fray and stayed mum on what causes it does — or doesn't support.

This is a smart strategy. Though recent comments made by Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk have whipped many large companies into a frenzy over the topic of advertising on the platform. 

Walmart discusses advertising on X

Asked last week by New York Times and CNBC reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook summit about advertisers leaving X, Elon Musk didn't mince words. 

“I don’t want them to advertise,” he said. “If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money go f**k yourself. Go. F**k. Yourself. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel," he added, referring to Disney's Bob Iger. 

Speaking at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, Elon Musk, the owner of social media site X (formerly Twitter), scoffed at advertisers boycotting the platform. https://t.co/u0oVfba34b pic.twitter.com/V3r1iYo2h5— CNBC (@CNBC) November 29, 2023

Understandably, his comments raised more than a few eyebrows. But Musk, it seems, is prepared to play hardball. He reminded the audience -- many of whom are ostensibly X users, that the social media platform relies on advertising almost wholly to function. 

"What this advertising boycott is going to do, it's going to kill the company," he explained, with a long, dramatic pause. "And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company. And we will document it in great detail."

Many large companies have already abandoned advertising on the platform, including Disney, Apple  (AAPL) - Get Free Report, and Coca Cola  (KO) - Get Free Report. 

When asked about its advertising strategy on X, however, Walmart struck a notably different note. 

"We are not actively advertising on X," a spokesman said following Musk's comments. "This is not about a specific change to our advertising policies. We've simply decreased spend over time to align with performance." 

"We're constantly optimizing our marketing efforts," they added. "These decisions are made in a dynamic market and could change in the future."

Walmart added later that it had since found other advertising platforms that work better for the value. 

"We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers," it said Dec. 1.