As you likely know, Tesla doesn’t do traditional advertising for its vehicles. Or much in the way of social-media advertising, either. That’s because Tesla is often considered “cool” and partly because of the cult of personality cultivated by boss Elon Musk.
That might be about to change, according to one report.
According to InsideEVs, Musk said in an interview that there may be some advantages after all.
For example, he believes (incorrectly, we’ll get to that in a second) that other automakers are getting special treatment from media outlets because they buy advertising.
“There’s an argument for maybe we should advertise because the traditional media will not run negative pieces about automotive. Because automotive is like one of the biggest—if not the biggest—advertisers in their paper,” he said.
This is, for the most part, bullshit. While there are exceptions — remember the flap involving auto critic Scott Burgess and his paper, when Burgess got mad about a review of his being watered down by editors to curry favor with Chrysler? — for the most part, advertising is separate from editorial. Over the years, I’ve seen readers write to the buff books complaining about this, only to be sarcastically taken down by editors who revealed the truth that reviews aren’t swayed by ads.
Certainly, we here at TTAC aren’t swayed — and the ads that run alongside our reviews are something that no one here has control over. Most are programmatic, others were sold by our corporate masters, with no involvement from myself or anyone else on the masthead. I’ve even written op-eds that were critical of OEMs that bought ad space from our corporate parent and took some guff for it — and I’ll do it again, even if I again take flack from above.
Also, if we at TTAC became aware of an outlet compromising its ethics because of advertising and could prove it, we’d cover it.
Ahem, back to Musk.
He then goes on to say that not having a PR team also hurts Tesla.
“So Tesla is basically free game [for traditional media]. Whereas, its [sic] safe to say that if they run some negative piece about General Motors right next to a General Motors ad, a General Motors marketing executive would call them and say,’ um—why did you do that?”
Again, he has the latter part wrong — generally speaking, I’m not aware of PR or marketing types calling journalists just because a negative piece or review ran near an ad. Speaking only for myself, every time I’ve gotten a call from a PR rep angry about something I/we wrote it’s either because we screwed up a fact or because they felt we were unfair in how we approached the piece. Or because they wanted to make the case that the company is aware of a vehicle’s flaws and the next model will be better, honest.
It’s never, in my experience, been about ads, though I acknowledge the possibility that things might be different in the print magazine world — my experience is mostly in digital. But again, from what I hear, the print books generally don’t let ad placement dictate the tone of editorial copy.
Aside from that, didn’t I say that Tesla was hurting itself by not having a PR team? Yes, yes I did.
Elon Musk is starting to show me, based on his tweets and public statements, that as smart as he is, he’s woefully uninformed about certain aspects of this business, other businesses (see: Social-media moderation), and life in general.
OK, we’re skidding towards the weeds like an overconfident driver in an overpowered car on a track day, so let’s tap the binders and tighten the line. Snarky but accurate broadsides at Musk aside, it’s unusual that an automotive company would spend $0 on advertising in Q1 2021 when the auto industry dropped $12 billion on it in 2020. Then again, Tesla, a small company trying to make it as a startup and one that’s heavily focused on EV and autonomous-driving tech, spends more on research and development than other OEMs. So Tesla could argue that the money it spends on R&D is going to something even more important than advertising.
Still, it’s almost unheard of for a car company, even one as well-known as Tesla, to not market its wares.
InsideEVs further points out that EV ads from other automakers, plus automakers taking shots, however subtle, at Tesla, have helped Tesla get attention from consumers. So Tesla gets some attention via the actions of its rivals, without having to lift a finger or spend a dollar.
Tesla has been in a unique position — for a variety of reasons, including those mentioned in this article’s lede, it has never really needed to advertise. Yet advertising probably wouldn’t hurt the company, especially if Musk could address legitimate criticisms about low build quality and the misleading use of “full-self driving” to describe Tesla’s autonomous driving tech.
We’ll see if Tesla ads grace our TV screens anytime soon. Until then, it continues to be interesting to see Musk learn the lessons that long-time automotive executives learned decades ago.
[Image: Tesla]
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Tim I hope you are right about the separation of editorial and advertising arms of auto Journos. But I don’t share your conviction. I’ve seen to many coincidental “best of awards” sandwiched between adds from the same manufacturer. Then there are companies like J.D. Power. Different, yes, but obviously taking the devils money.
JD Power is and always has been a joke.
Like I said, there have been execptions. MT had some issues in the past, IIRC, as one example.
And don’t forget Automobile Magazine’s Jeep “Pimpatorial”.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2008/03/automobile-editor-jean-jennings-stars-in-jeep-pimpatorial/
I think Jean Jennings did another one for Lincoln as well – some kind of comparison between a Lincoln MKS and a bunch of other sedans at Pikes Peak, which concluded – miracle of miracles! – that the MKS was just fab in the twisties.
Tesla doesn’t need to advertise, and I think ads would actually hurt it by breaking the mystique. Mr Musk should just stop talking.
As for this: “Tesla, a small company trying to make it as a startup”
Tesla is a 19-year-old company that sold nearly 1 million vehicles last year, with $54 billion in revenue and 110,000 employees.
That’s not small, and that’s not a startup. Most legacy mfrs can’t touch those numbers.
Expecting Musk to stop talking is like expecting Trump to stop talking. Not gonna happen whether you love it or hate it.
$54 billion means nothing. The losses could easily exceed that in the EV segment. Maybe he is fabulous, but not magic. Parts are parts.
I think Musk should take the $44 billion he’s spending on his Twitter ego trip and split it between a) inventing Immodium for the mouth, and b) quality control for his cars.
Tesla has succeeded largely because it’s had its’ corner of the market to itself for quite some time. That’s changing very quickly. The company’s competitors may be a bit behind on EV tech, but they’re vastly better at screwing cars together. In the long run, quality counts, particularly at the higher end of the market.
Thalidomide
True, and Musk isn’t going to be birthin’ no babies.
Elon bucks certain stereotypes by actually paying his child support
@FreedMike–Agree Tesla would be the last company I would buy an EV from abysmal quality and the attitude they are perfect and can do no wrong. Don’t want to see Elon in an ad.
Given the lead time to get any Tesla model, they don’t need to advertise. However, they could benefit from a PR department to defend them from unjustified criticism.
Exactly. I don’t understand why they’d want to spend money on advertising given their backlog.
You don’t advertise just to increase sales. You do it to control your image. Regardless of the backlog you want everyone to be a potential customer. I don’t like Musk for the stupid things he says and does, so I won’t buy a Tesla – Musk is Tesla right now because Tesla has no voice. I’m not a customer for an EV anyway but I might be one day. Tesla is maturing to the point where they don’t need their quirky CEO to ramble on about going to Mars. It’s just a car company now and should be evaluated on the strength of its products, not Musks (childish) personality. Your mileage may vary.
Advertising will not help Tesla’s image if Elon does the commercials.
If they do advertise, I bet Elon won’t be able to keep his fingers off the campaign. I predict “super cringe” results.
@sckid213: ” I predict “super cringe” results.”
You’re so right. I think that’s exactly what will happen! It’s going to be an epic train wreck.
I wish I could agree with you but I do not. Musk claims that incessant
badmouthing of his company would be curtailed if ads were run in the same
publications that are trashing Tesla. Firewall or no, policy or none, execs
know where there bread is buttered.
Again, he is not trying to increase sales or create a better image. He is
talking about image damage prevention.
Not a fan, but he is right on this one.
This is basically Elon realizing that Tesla may need to advertise as increasingly numerous, increasingly better EV competition from other manufacturers hit the streets, but not wanting to give the impression that Tesla’s cool factor is wearing off and has to advertise to boost its image.
I’m not sure its the ads that generate the “good will” that Elon thinks it does, but I would bet that the free junkets to interesting locations with all the shrimp you can eat, plus the endless supply of loaner cars, improves the glow of the recently tested refreshed Sentra or BMW.
I can’t remember which C&D scribe that let it slip that he hasn’t bought a car in 25+ year given the flow of loaners.
If you know what you want, 80% of the work is done. Problems are introduced when buyers are not educated/knowledgeable/savvy/confident enough to give a seller a number to hit and sticking with it.
Negotiating a car purchase isn’t much different than negotiating a starting salary for a job. Know what you want, be reasonable and be prepared to walk away.
Age has nothing to do with it. I have avoided many long trips to dealers who were swinging for the fences on pricing. Most asked me to ‘come on down and talk about it.’ Nah, the internet and phones have made negotiating much less time consuming and stressful.
The article reminded me of the ad ‘campaign’ that Ford undertook many years back. The tag line – At Ford, Quality is Job 1.” Now whether or not that was realized in the vehicles they made during that period is unknown to me personally. Ads, in my mind, are all about planting the message the advertiser wants planted in the minds of those seeing/hearing the ads. It’s mostly on the subliminal level. Over time during that campaign I would guess if one surveyed the general population, folks would respond that they generally think Ford made quality vehicles. The ads worked if that was the case. The hard part is making certain that 99.9% of the Fords sold were, indeed, quality vehicles. When one fails to follow through, public perception is just as easily changed through experience.
Those old Volvo ads during the 70s were very effective and the VW ads. I remember one VW ad where it showed the Smith family and then it show the Kempler family with the inexpensive but reliable VW Beetles with the slogan “Now its keeping up with the Kemplers”. The other ad was for the new semi automatic VW Beetle in 1968 with a character dressed up as William Shakespeare “The question is to shift or not to shift that is the option”. Those are car ads I can still remember they got the message across with some humor added.