Elon Musk backflips, says Tesla will advertise now

Tesla has railed against conventional advertising and public relations since its inception. That’s about to change.

Speaking at the brand’s Cyber Roundup shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk acknowledged the need to start speaking about Tesla to a broader audience than is currently the case.

Later that day, Musk told CNBC any Tesla advertising would be used to cut through some of the misconceptions around the brand – particularly when it comes to pricing and safety.

“It’s worth a try and we’ll see how effective it is. I only just agreed to it so it’s not a fully formed strategy,” he told CNBC.

Starting to advertise signals a significant course change for Musk and Tesla, given the outspoken CEO has previously professed to “hate advertising”.

The change in mindset is apparently thanks to Twitter, which Musk now owns.

“Twitter is highly dependent on advertising, so, here I am, never used advertising really before, and now have a company that’s highly dependent on advertising,” he told the Cyber Roundup, as reported by The Verge.

“So I guess I should say advertising is awesome, everyone should do it!”