Tesla discloses it spent $200k advertising on X

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/18/business/elon-musk-tesla-advertises-on-x/index.html

by peutetre • 2 years ago

43 50 2 years ago

rapsey4• 2 years ago

so?

kelthuzad3• 2 years ago

Elon has previously stated that he doesn't believe in advertising, "Tesla doesn't advertise". I assume that's the reason why it's newsworthy.

jojobas2• 2 years ago

Maybe it didn't in the past, definitely does for a while now. There are TV ads from 2022.

Regardless, why is Tesla advertising policy news, on YC of all places?

hackerlight2• 2 years ago

There's also the obvious conflict of interest. How does that get resolved?

memish• 2 years ago

He said a while ago that he was open to trying it in response to some shareholders who kept asking him to advertise.

mandeepj2• 2 years ago

Elon has previously stated that he doesn't believe in advertising

I have seen numerous Tesla ads on Youtube

yfw• 2 years ago

He also says he'll be the last to sell Tesla stock

akira2501• 2 years ago

"Lying CEO lies again."

"Overconfident CEO has to eat his words again."

Is this really a Musk thing or is he just the most visible and comical example of it?

yunohn• 2 years ago

It’s also a tough bit of hypocrisy because he said he doesn’t believe in advertising and then bought a social media company that (like others) relies on advertising for the majority of its revenue.

jasonlotito2• 2 years ago

The article covers this. Quite well in fact. A public company where the owner had said “Tesla does not advertise or pay for endorsements” had said they were going to start doing that and this is following up on that. These sorts of things are generally note worthy for public companies.

“Instead [of advertising], we use that money to make the product great.” That they feel the need to start advertising might mean the product isn’t as good as it was once perceived to be.

The article goes into this more. Asking “so?” Makes it appear as if you just read the headline and thought you knew enough to make a worthwhile comment here. Which I know isn’t true.

So?

rapsey4• 2 years ago

You are right that is exactly what I did. I did not need to read the article to know what they are talking about.

A company maturing and doing what every other company is doing is not however interesting. The only reason it is a story is because it is an Elon company.

Personally what I find strange is how people perceive Twitter comments as somehow a contract with the public. People say lots of things, the smart ones are able to change their minds.

wesselbindt• 2 years ago

Something about monopolies and cartels being bad.

giancarlostoro2• 2 years ago

I guess its news because of his 2019 tweet, but I think its fair to say his strategy will change over time. To be really fair, he personally spend 40b+ on 'free' advertising to all his companies, every time he tweets, millions of potential people see it.

mandeepj2• 2 years ago

To be really fair, he personally spend 40b+ on 'free' advertising to all his companies, every time he tweets, millions of potential people see it.
every time he tweets, millions of potential people see it.

that feature is always there without the $40B spend :-)

rsynnott• 2 years ago

Arguably kind of _negative_ advertising, though. Like, I'm not sure people are buying Teslas _because of his tweets_.

giancarlostoro2• 2 years ago

My understanding is that car advertisements are to fight buyers remorse mainly. You just bought some F150 and are having second thoughts, all of a sudden you see a commercial where its going up and down various mountains.

camel_gopher• 2 years ago

That’s it?

Formand• 2 years ago

They advertise very aggressively on YouTube (UK).

daghamm• 2 years ago

Elon has been threatening other companies with all kind of crap for stopping advertising on twitter. They have also directly and indirectly attacked Media Matters for affecting their advertising revenue.

Does the fact that his own company barely advertises on twitter be used against him now?

bagels• 2 years ago

Like, in court? Or in public discussion?

al_borland• 2 years ago

The article mentions a few times that Tesla is well known for not advertising, so any spending at all is meaningful. It’s not like they are spending $200m on Facebook and Google marketing, and $200k on Twitter.

Elon also Tweets about Tesla often, as one would expect. With his reach on the platform, that is likely better than actually advertising.

Hamuko• 2 years ago

They seem to be ramping up advertising budgets quite aggressively, so they probably shouldn't be well known for not spending on ads.

Musk boasted that Tesla spent $0 on advertising in a tweet from 2022, but Vivvix estimated that they actually spent around $200k in ads in 2022 and $6.4 million in 2023. I'd guess that they're not done increasing those budgets since they're still quite low when compared to others in the space.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-dives-into-advertising-af...

Ekaros• 2 years ago

Doesn't that seem actually surprisingly small amount of money? Or will it ramp up significantly?

Krasnol• 2 years ago

advertising: $200k

ruining your reputation by the CEO: priceless

Tesla discloses it spent $200k advertising on X

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