The studio behind an upcoming documentary about tech CEO Elon Musk has reportedly been surprised to find the major social media platforms unwilling to sell ads to it.
That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter, which reported Friday that the documentary titled “Musk” from filmmaker Alex Gibney is struggling to gain traction online as YouTube, TikTok, and the Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook have all rejected offers to run the film’s trailer.
X itself has also refused to accept advertising for the film, the report said.
“The rejection by the other platforms has taken distributor Bleecker Street by surprise, which internally is scrambling to understand why their ad has been rejected, according to a person familiar with the company’s processes who is not authorized to talk about them publicly,” The Hollywood Reporter said in its exclusive report.
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all cited “political content” as the reason for declining to run ads promoting the documentary about Musk, a Trump ally who served as the head of the White House’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and is a top GOP mega donor.
“But the Musk trailer, which dropped Thursday, does not appear to fall in the category of the campaign advertising those bylaws were enacted to prevent,” The Hollywood Reporter observed. “It simply contains a shot of a political rally in 2024 and a reference at the end to the 2024 election.”
YouTube offered an even hazier response as the platform does allow campaign ads so long as they include a “paid for” disclosure, according to the report. The studio is appealing with all three companies.
“A Bleecker Street representative confirmed that the ads were initially rejected but said they are continuing to appeal with all three companies besides X in the hope minds can be changed,” the report said.
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