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College Grads Create Fake Tesla Commercial That Elon Musk Loves

cartechboy (2660665) writes "Two University of Southern California grads were looking to start a digital content company so they decided to roll the dice and create a home-made (but incredibly professional looking) television commercial for Tesla — just to see if they could get some attention for it. Well, apparently, mission accomplished. R.J. Collins and James Khabushani took $1,500 and created a 60-second Tesla 'faux-mercial' dubbed 'Modern Spaceship' that is well, pretty good. Elon Musk noticed, tweeted it and has helped the thing go viral."

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Lemme posit this... by alexhs · · Score: 5, Informative

    Question: why cannot the "professional" commercial makers do this sort of thing?

    They do. For example: The Force: Volkswagen Commercial

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    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
  2. Actual link to the ad by the_other_chewey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Instead of linking to some site linking to or embedding the ad from youtube,
    here's the actual youtube link.

  3. Re:Nice viral video by Teancum · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is a very common kind of thing done in most college film schools, where students are encouraged to make a commercial about some product that they like and promote it as if they were hired by that company. I had a rather progressive high school where I did that as a high school junior for a television communications class.

    Really, it isn't that big of a deal. If the company itself picks up the commercial and runs it as if it was their own, that is where the FTC gets real nasty.

    The other thing to worry about is that these guys posted the video on YouTube. Technically Tesla could yank the commercial as a violation of their trademark, and I suppose if it was misleading or doing something to ruin their reputation, they certainly could send in a DMCA request to YouTube and cause the commercial to be pulled. On the other hand, if it is this good, it is free advertising for them and generates buzz with a whole lot of people seeing their products in positive light, so it generally is a win-win situation for companies to support

  4. Re:Lemme posit this... by ZiakII · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because, when it comes to car commercials, ad agencies are bound by so many rules and regulations regarding depictions of reckless driving and such things that it becomes almost impossible tp create a cool car commercial without running the risk of going to court over it (both the ad agency AND car manufacturer).

    What the hell are you talking about.... I just watched a car commercial where a woman jumped on top of a moving train with a car.