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Tesla discloses it spent $200k advertising on X
- rapsey 3y agoso?
- kelthuzad 3y agoElon has previously stated that he doesn't believe in advertising, "Tesla doesn't advertise". I assume that's the reason why it's newsworthy.
- jojobas 3y agoMaybe 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?
- hackerlight 3y agoThere's also the obvious conflict of interest. How does that get resolved?
- djbusby 3y agoMaybe compare the spend to other channels? If it's significant difference then it's a problem? If all online channels are 200k and Twitter is one of 12 well, NBD.
- jojobas 3y agoSpend in other channels would be irrelevant. Fair pricing is the only thing I can think of.
- uhohspaghetti 3y ago[dead]
- rapsey 3y agoIs this a moral or legal code that is being broken somehow? Because he owns both companies it is somehow immoral to do business between them?
- tayo42 3y agono, but there is potential so its probably better off not doing it. but this sounds pretty low for a major company's advertising budget and pretty low in relative amounts to be worth risking doing corrupt things.
- ipv6ipv4 3y agoTesla is a publicly traded company with shareholders. Twitter is Musk’s private plaything. Tesla using Twitter services could be a conflict of interest because Musk is CEO of both and could be using his position at Tesla to funnel public shareholder money into Twitter, aka his pocket.
- nrb 3y ago
- memish 3y agoHe said a while ago that he was open to trying it in response to some shareholders who kept asking him to advertise.
- mandeepj 3y ago> Elon has previously stated that he doesn't believe in advertising I have seen numerous Tesla ads on Youtube
- hughesjj 3y agoAlso tons of astroturfing
- yfw 3y agoHe also says he'll be the last to sell Tesla stock
- akira2501 3y ago"Lying CEO lies again." or "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?
- ben_w 3y agoMost visible. Seen many opine that SpaceX is slow and expensive, which only makes sense when anchored against Musk's fantasy timelines as all the old space companies are much slower and more expensive than what SpaceX actually delivers. Likewise with electric cars, the talking point is how Musk didn't really found Tesla, not that pre-Musk-CEO Tesla delivered 147 cars in 5.5 years for over a million dollars invested per vehicle.
- numpad0 3y agoOr, maybe the need for a focus group research with Tesla, advertising, and Twitter as topic had risen?
- yunohn 3y agoIt’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.
- jasonlotito 3y agoThe 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?
- rapsey 3y agoYou 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.
- metabagel 3y agoIt’s a story, because people wonder if he’s using funds from one company he controls to prop up another company which he outright owns. Right now, the amount is small, but I expect it will increase.
- jasonlotito 3y agoSo you argument is that Elon Musk is unimportant? That statements made to investors is unimportant? That changes made about quality and spending and where money is being used is not important to investors for publically traded companies? That's an odd stance to take.
- wesselbindt 3y agoSomething about monopolies and cartels being bad.
- giancarlostoro 3y agoI 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.
- mandeepj 3y 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 3y agoArguably kind of _negative_ advertising, though. Like, I'm not sure people are buying Teslas _because of his tweets_.
- giancarlostoro 3y agoMy 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 3y agoThat’s it?
- Formand 3y agoThey advertise very aggressively on YouTube (UK).
- infogulch 3y ago[dead]
- daghamm 3y agoElon 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 3y agoLike, in court? Or in public discussion?
- al_borland 3y agoThe 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 3y agoThey 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-after-years-of-resistance-87810a4b https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-dives-into-advertising-af...
- Ekaros 3y agoDoesn't that seem actually surprisingly small amount of money? Or will it ramp up significantly?
- Krasnol 3y agoadvertising: $200k ruining your reputation by the CEO: priceless