Twitter’s recent rebranding announcement has garnered mixed reactions from social media users. CEO Linda Yaccarino’s verbose statement about the platform’s transformation has drawn comparisons to a cringeworthy business pitch from the hit show Succession. In the show, a group of siblings devises a confusing company concept called The Hundred, and Twitter users are now joking that Yaccarino’s tweet is just as convoluted. Many users believe that the company’s grand ideas for the future of the platform sound like jargon-filled talk designed to be mocked.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, unveiled the rebranding plan on Saturday, announcing that Twitter would now be called X. Along with the name change, the platform would abandon recognizable phrases like tweet and introduce a new logo, replacing the famous bird emblem. This move has not entirely won over Twitter users, who have mixed feelings about the transformation.
Yaccarino took to Twitter to elaborate on the rebranding, describing X as the future state of unlimited interactivity. She outlined how the platform would focus on audio, video, messaging, payments/banking, and create a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Yaccarino emphasized that X would be powered by artificial intelligence and would connect people in ways they were only beginning to imagine.
However, social media users quickly drew parallels between Yaccarino’s statement and a fictional business pitch in Succession. In the show, one character, Kendall Roy, played by Jeremy Strong, presents an idea for a company called The Hundred, blending aspects of Substack, Masterclass, The Economist, and The New Yorker. Users humorously compared Yaccarino’s convoluted tweet to Kendall’s confused, unfocused venture.
The comparison between Yaccarino’s statement and the fictional pitch from Succession has entertained Twitter users, with many finding humor in the similarities. Rolling Stone’s editor-in-chief, Noah Shachtman, even jokingly referenced Kendall Roy’s voice, stating, It’s, y’know, Venmo meets Clubhouse meets eBay meets ChatGPT. Another widely circulated tweet said, Enjoyable to imagine Kendall Roy saying this to investors.
While Twitter’s executives may have envisioned a grand, utopian future for X, many users feel that the pitch is simply filled with jargon that deserves to be ridiculed. As reactions flood in, it remains to be seen how Twitter will respond to the mixed feedback about its rebranding efforts.
