Major brands are mostly ignoring Elon Musk’s new X logo: ‘How many people really know what “Follow us on X” means?’

• Twitter became X last month, but major brands have been slow to adopt the new logo.
• Of the top 25 advertisers in the US, just one had switched to the X symbol on its website
• This highlights the confusion around the rebrand, branding experts said.

Although Twitter has been rebranded to X for nearly a month, most major brands have yet to remove the blue bird logo from their marketing.

According to AdAge, an Insider analysis of the websites of the 25 biggest-spending advertisers in the US found that only one — Procter & Gamble — had switched to the new X branding in their social media contact information.

Other major corporations, such as General Motors, American Express, Amazon, Comcast, and L’Oreal, still use the old Twitter logo on their websites. A request for comment was not returned by the companies.

Expedia and IBM, two of the top 25 companies, didn’t have any social media logos on their websites at the time of Insider’s review. X did not respond to a comment request.

Earlier this month, X released a new brand toolkit with logo templates and other marketing assets for marketers to use.

While some businesses may not have updated their websites yet, branding experts believe a refusal to carry the “X” logo could indicate continued confusion about Twitter’s rebrand.

Musk renamed Twitter X Corp. earlier this year and replaced the company’s branding on July 24. Musk, who previously ran the online banking startup X.com, which later became PayPal, has previously stated his desire for X to become “an everything app,” encompassing both financial services and social networking.

According to the brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance, dropping the Twitter name could have cost the company up to $4 billion in lost brand value.

“How many people really know what ‘Follow us on X’ means?” said Matt Boffey, Design Bridge and Partners’ chief strategy and innovation officer.

According to Boffey, some brands may continue to use the old logo as a form of “values signaling.”

“Perhaps some of them won’t want their brand associated with Musk’s X and the negative perceptions that surround it, considering it to be a potential reputational risk,” said Boffey.

According to Marissa Mulvihill, partner and head of brand and activation at consulting firm Prophet, the X logo has an inherent user experience issue because it looks like the “close” button on a browser window or app.

Furthermore, some brands may be delaying updating to the X symbol because they are unsure how long it will be in use. Last month, Musk stated that the logo would “evolve over time.”

“With a clear lack of strategy and no transition plan in place, the rebrand has been messy,” Mulvihill explained. “With Elon’s reputation for rash decisions, there is legitimate concern that he could change his mind at any time and return to Twitter or something entirely different.”