Prankster Taking Advantage Of Elon Musk's Verification Tweak May Have Cost Pharmaceutical Company Eli Lilly And Twitter Millions

It's been a little less than a week since Elon Musk decided anyone could get a blue checkmark for a mere $8, kicking off a wave of pranksters imitating actual notable accounts to oftentimes hilarious ends.

Arguably the most humorous and certainly consequential of these impersonations came from one Twitter user imitating pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, best known for manufacturing insulin, Prozac and the diabetes treatments Trulicity and Humalog.

Last Thursday, the prankster spent $8 to tweet, as Eli Lilly, "We are excited to announce insulin is free now." The company's stock plummeted the next day.

Did Twitter Blue tweet just cost Eli Lilly $LLY billions? Yes. pic.twitter.com/w4RtJwgCVK

— Rafael Shimunov is on Mastodon (@rafaelshimunov) November 11, 2022

Despite reactions and sentiments on social media, it's unclear if the company's stock fell as a direct result of the fake tweet, but there is a strong correlation suggesting that's the case.

What's more clear is the tweet set off widespread panic in the Eli Lilly offices, according to a report from the Washington Post. The phony tweet stayed up for hours while employees scrambled to get in touch with anyone at Twitter (no small feat considering Musk slashed a huge chunk of Twitter's staff days before).

In an attempt to mitigate the damage, the actual Eli Lilly Twitter account had to clarify that no, it is not making insulin free.

We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account. Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad.

— Eli Lilly and Company (@LillyPad) November 10, 2022

Unfortunately for Eli Lilly, the damage had apparently been done and began compounding as more fake Twitter users paid $8 to troll and coincidentally damage the brand.

You've now got new fake accounts spoofing the apology of the real account for the behavior of the other fake accounts. pic.twitter.com/xvgFQTn6zi

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 11, 2022

There are rumors that the fiasco caused Eli Lilly to pull its advertising on Twitter, and while that's unconfirmed, it's clear that Musk's verification debacle and his overall tenure as site owner so far have scared off many potential advertisers. According to a memo reported on by The Verge, Omnicom Media Group, which represents Apple, Pepsi and McDonald's, among others, has recommended pausing all advertising on Twitter due to "potential serious implications."

"[There is] evidence that the risk to our clients’ brand safety has risen sharply to a level most would find unacceptable," Omnicom wrote. "We recommend pausing activity on Twitter in the short term until the platform can prove it has reintroduced safeguards to an acceptable level and has regained control of its environment."

This would obviously be very bad for Twitter, which has never quite been a premier destination for online advertisers. To avoid going bankrupt, as Musk himself warned was possible, it would need advertisers to invest dollars into Twitter. Letting ironic memers incidentally poison a brand for merely $8 is likely not a way to earn brands' trust.

Speaking to The Washington Post, former Eli Lilly communications director Amy Connor said, "For $8, they’re potentially losing out on millions of dollars in ad revenue."