Hours after reports of Tesla, Inc. TSLA laying off its marketing team in the U.S., CEO Elon Musk said the ads made by the team failed to impress him.
What Happened: The CEO concurred with an X user and Tesla enthusiast who said the ads made by the team were rather unimpressive and wrote, “Exactly. The ads were far too generic – could've been any car.”
Musk’s comment comes on the heel of a Bloomberg report that the EV giant has removed its newly formed marketing team as part of the 10% companywide layoff announced last week. The report noted that the entirety of the team in the U.S., including senior manager Alex Ingram, were eliminated.
Trial And Error: Musk first expressed willingness to try traditional advertising less than a year ago in May 2023. Until then, the company boasted of spending almost no money on advertising but became popular purely via word of mouth.
Since then, Tesla has attempted advertising on different platforms including YouTube, X, and even Meta Platforms’ Instagram, and Facebook despite Musk’s past criticism of them.
However, in January, Tesla executives clarified during the fourth-quarter earnings call that while the lack of awareness impacted EV adoption, the company would not spend too much on advertising and marketing but instead spend it in areas and geographies where the company has low market share such as Japan.
Analyst Take: Not all Tesla analysts favor this strategy of low advertising investment. The Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black has often criticized Tesla’s attempts at driving sales via price cuts that weigh heavily on the company’s margins. Black recommends advertising instead.
Even on Monday, Black reiterated that educating combustion engine vehicle owners on the perks of EVs via advertising is “badly needed” to drive sales. “Anyone can cut price. It's a blunt inefficient tool,” Black added.
Anti-Tesla Advertising: While Musk has been sidestepping advertising, anti-Tesla crusaders have been going all in.
The Dawn Project, founded by tech billionaire Dan O'Dowd, released two ads at the Super Bowl championship earlier this year alleging that Tesla failed to act despite the group flagging multiple concerns about the safety of its full self-driving (FSD) driver assistance software and urged for a boycott of the company.
"When you buy a new Tesla you are financing and enabling Elon Musk to put a dangerous, unfinished, product on our public roads," O'Dowd said in a statement then.
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Read Next: Tesla FSD Is Now Nearly 50% Cheaper Than When Elon Musk Called It ‘Very Low’ Just Under A Year Ago
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