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Elon Musk Agrees To Hold Contest For Fan-Made Tesla Ads, At the Urging of a 5th Grader (adweek.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the are-you-smarter-than-a-5th-grader dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Adweek: Elon Musk is well aware that Tesla's superfans love to make unauthorized commercials for the brand, given that Tesla doesn't make its own (and, given the power of word of mouth, doesn't really need to). But it has taken a fifth-grade girl to convince him to actually run a fan-made ad. "Dear Elon Musk, I'm Bria from Ms. Esparza's 5th grade class," she wrote to the Tesla founder in a letter that her father (a writer for InsideEVs.com) also posted to Twitter. "I have noticed that you do not advertise, but many people make homemade commercials for Tesla and some of them are very good, they look professional and they are entertaining. So, I think that you should run a competition on who can make the best homemade Tesla commercial and the winners will get their commercial aired." Within an hour of the Twitter post, Musk -- who apparently is as smart as a fifth grader -- brightened to the idea. "Thank you for the lovely letter. That sounds like a great idea. We'll do it!" he wrote. Two of the fan-made, cinematography-rich commercials mentioned in the report include the 2014 spot called "Modern Spaceship," and "Fireflies," which was directed by Parachute's Sam O'Hare. What's particularly neat about the "Fireflies" ad is that it was completely CGI.

17 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He doesn't have to. It's a religion now, and he's the new Jesus. Or anti-christ, I guess. Depends on your point of view.

  2. Editors! by Nemyst · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hey editors, the link to the first video (which I presume you added) links to the very end of it. I know, editing is hard and all.

  3. Candidate Proposal by decipher_saint · · Score: 2

    I mean, sure some people don't go for the so-called "hard sell" approach but then again you can kiss my ass:
    https://youtu.be/X637dAm2hHM

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
  4. Re:In other news by geekmux · · Score: 2

    Elon is all out of ideas, begs 5th grader to do his job for him

    Or perhaps when your product practically sells itself, you can afford to focus on other things.

    It's not like the man does nothing else but make homemade bongs in his garage all day...

  5. What a coincidence! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    "Dear Elon Musk, I'm Bria from Ms. Esparza's 5th grade class," she wrote to the Tesla founder in a letter that her father (a writer for InsideEVs.com) also posted to Twitter.

    What an astonishing coincidence!

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  6. Re:Steve Jobs had nothing on this cat by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Musk is everything Jobs thought he was.

    Jobs said he was a pain in the butt selfish boss more than once... I think you are right.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  7. Re:In other news by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

    Haters gonna hate!

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  8. In other news by benjonson · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Elon is all out of ideas, begs 5th grader to do his job for him

    Yeah, what's it been? A month?

    --
    =-+
  9. Re:In other news by mea_culpa · · Score: 1

    CNN Breaking News: Elon is all out of ideas, begs 5th grader to do his job for him

    FTFY

  10. One condition - by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

    As long as it is done in animated crayon and has a funny ending, I'm for it. (After all it's a fifth grader doing it.)

  11. There is a reason they don't advertise by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    Tesla (Motors) is sooo backed up with orders that they cannot crank out electric cars fast enough. When they aren't at 10000% demand, that's when they'll start advertising.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  12. Re:In other news by aevan · · Score: 1

    Pretty sure taking suggestions from a 5th Grader is part of the Evil Overlord Handbook for ways to avoid missing the the patently obvious. i.e. not a bad idea

  13. Up next: Fan-made Tesla cars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I propose the next Tesla to look like this: https://www.wired.com/2014/07/homer-simpson-car/

  14. Re: In other news by mspohr · · Score: 1

    Tesla doesn't advertise. It doesn't need to. It always has a 2-3 month backlog of orders even with a 75% increase in production every year. It also has 400,000 orders for the model 3.

    --
    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  15. I finally get how Jobs fanbois felt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think I might get it. Is there anything Musk does that's not inspiring?

    Gawd I hope he doesn't turn out to be a wife beater or something, or be like so many other corporate psychopaths.

  16. Try these fan made ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://vimeo.com/152927644

    https://youtu.be/Y6ylwdbEcPE

    https://youtu.be/X-MLF3Yo0UU

    https://youtu.be/VoRoSx6x64Y

    https://youtu.be/w6468pYMoIY

    https://youtu.be/QweNsLesMrM

    https://youtu.be/-DndUqALw7U

    https://youtu.be/elFT31kQvbk

    https://youtu.be/BCcfiwQZIQg

    https://youtu.be/N_N52q2goeM

    https://vimeo.com/150542933

    All fan made.

  17. Re:In other news by James+McGuigan · · Score: 1

    12. One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

    http://www.eviloverlord.com/li...