https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ak3eg4/elon-musk-suddenly-into-advertising-teslas-after-buying-a-huge-advertising-platform

After more than 15 years of not advertising Teslas, Elon Musk is suddenly into the idea of advertising Teslas now that he also owns Twitter, which relies on ads to make money.

One of the most significant differentiators between Tesla and the rest of the auto industry has always been that the auto industry spends billions of dollars on ads every year and Tesla does not. In fact, Tesla has spent precisely zero dollars on advertisements. One might think this was evidence advertising cars is a waste of money, especially for Tesla. After all, the electric car company is profitable, a household name, and a major player in the auto industry. This is something Tesla has achieved in less than two decades without advertising, in part because Musk has a legion of loyal evangelists, and his tweets are essentially a form of free advertising. In 2019, while responding to another account asking if Tesla has a marketing team, Musk tweeted, “I hate advertising.”