Good morning. Today, major marketers put their Twitter advertising on hold; some companies are giving up on prominent tests of consumer-facing robots; and Airbnb says its move away from search advertising has been a good bet.

General Mills, Mondelez, Pfizer and Audi are among a growing list of brands that have paused their Twitter advertising in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin report.

Some advertisers are concerned that Mr. Musk could scale back content moderation, which they worry would lead to an increase in objectionable content on the platform.

Others are temporarily halting their ads because of the uncertainty at the company as top executives exit and Mr. Musk considers a raft of changes.

Several ad buyers say they expect the number of brands pausing Twitter ads to rise. They say many advertisers don’t consider the platform a must-buy, sending far larger budgets to Google and Meta Platforms, and that pausing makes sense during the bumpy transition under Mr. Musk.

More from the Twitter storm:

Twitter told employees it would notify staff about layoffs on Friday. The company didn’t spell out the extent of the cuts. [WSJ]

Elon Musk has discussed charging a fee to let users send direct messages to high-profile users. [NYT]

Company-wide days off called “days of rest” have disappeared from Twitter employees’ calendars. [Bloomberg] 

If robots are the future, some consumer-facing businesses aren’t getting there soon, Katie Deighton writes. For example:

• FedEx and Amazon last month said they were ending tests of robots that could bring packages to your home.
• DoorDash over the summer shut down its Chowbotics business, best known for a salad-making robot named Sally.
• Chili’s in August halted the rollout of Rita, which seated guests, served food, bused tables and sang “Happy Birthday.” (See one restaurant’s TikTok farewell to Rita here.) 

And the fast-casual chain BurgerFi has given up on Patty, a robot waiter it began testing in Jupiter, Fla., last December.

The human servers were happy to have a robot to help them bus plates, but Patty didn’t speed things up enough to turn over considerably more tables, said Karl Goodhew, BurgerFi’s chief technology officer.

“It turns out to be a massive investment for something that is really an extra pair of hands,” Mr. Goodhew said.

Airbnb said its strategy of slashing advertising spending, investing in brand marketing and lessening its reliance on search-engine marketing is continuing to pay off, Megan Graham reports.

Its marketing spending is also now low enough that it doesn’t anticipate drastic reductions even if economic headwinds worsen next year, it said.

Airbnb in 2019 began trying to depend less on search advertising and to lean more on broad marketing campaigns and public relations designed to build its brand.

Airbnb made the remarks Tuesday as it reported its most profitable quarter to date, suggesting that demand for travel is strong despite challenges from inflation.

Warner Bros. Discovery is speeding up the launch of a combined HBO Max/Discovery+ streaming service, now planning on a spring launch. [WSJ]

French luxury giant Kering is in advanced discussions to buy fashion brand Tom Ford. [WSJ]

Alcohol-delivery service Drizly is running its biggest ad campaign yet to keep customers coming long after pandemic lockdowns. [Adweek]

The ad industry’s Trustworthy Accountability Group introduced a system for online advertisers to see how much money ad-tech intermediaries collected from their campaigns and where their ads wound up. [MediaPost]

Ad holding company Stagwell reported double-digit organic net revenue growth in the third quarter. [Campaign]

Kellogg said consumers are accepting higher prices for supermarket staples like breakfast cereal and snacks. [WSJ]

Mars Wrigley’s tubs of mixed candy in the U.K. this holiday season will be available without the usual divisive Bounty coconut treats. [BBC]