For years, Tesla avoided advertising, but the automaker finally relented a couple years ago. Now facing a tidal wave of challenges, the company is trying a new approach with ads that mirror CEO Elon Musk’s edgelord persona on social media.
The edgy social media admin angle has been tried before by Wendy’s and other national brands, but they felt more organic than Tesla’s approach, which uses paid X accounts owned by the company to create painfully cringeworthy posts. One, which portrays the Tesla Optimus robot on the beach with Kim Kardashian, skirts the edges of not-safe-for-work content.
While a couple of the ads were cohesive enough to get their message across, the effort likely won’t do much to pull in new buyers. Tesla is only advertising on X, which has millions of users but is far from the more-used social media network. The site has also lost a significant number of users who disapprove of Musk’s actions, leaving mostly Trump- and Tesla-friendly eyes to view these ads.
The automaker also still has to contend with the public sentiment around CEO Elon Musk, who may soon leave his duties at the White House. His efforts to cut costs and public talk of slashing social security and other safety nets have earned him a passionate group of detractors, and it will likely take years for public opinion to shift, if it ever does.
[Images: Tesla]
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