Pivot’s Swisher and Galloway target Twitter, Musk and Meta

NEW YORK -based Vox Media journalist Kara Swisher and NYU Stern marketing professor Scott Galloway brought their no-holds barred style of business commentary to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Wednesday, recording a live edition of their popular podcast Pivot from the stage of the Debussy. With Swisher in the role of question master, Galloway was given licence to rampage through some of the current topics preoccupying the conjoined worlds of tech and advertising. His most cutting remarks were reserved for Twitter, which he accused of lacking civility and fostering a “culture of cruelty” in the Elon Musk era. His advice to marketers? “Don’t spend money on the platform — go somewhere else.”

Apple’s new VR headsets also attracted Galloway’s ire, as did Meta’s alleged failure to protect teenage girls from toxic influences. Asked who might benefit if TikTok is banned in the US, he predicted “value transference to Meta and Snapchat”.

Both Swisher and Galloway professed themselves to be AI advocates and urged Cannes Lions delegates to get to grips with the tech. “People won’t lose their jobs to AI,” Galloway said. “They’ll lose them to people who understand AI better than they do. Younger people