Sales of Tesla vehicles peak right after its rivals air their Super Bowl ads extolling the virtues of electric cars, even though Tesla never advertises on its own. At Sunday’s Super Bowl, however, longtime Tesla critic Dan O’Dowd will be launching the first attack ad against Tesla’s self-driving claims.
After the last Super Bowl halftime electric vehicle advertising onslaught, Tesla saw the sales of its EVs peak dramatically even though there wasn’t a single Tesla ad aired as the company only does direct marketing. On Valentine’s Day 2022, Tesla orders almost doubled compared to the previous day when the Super Bowl ad space was littered with EV advertising by BMW, VW, GM, KIA, and others. General Motors aired ad with a title “Why not an EV,” for instance, while some like Polestar’s “No compromises” spot indirectly attacked Elon Musk’s Mars landing ambition as unnecessary distraction.
At the 2023 Super Bowl Sunday, however, Tesla attack ads will be much more direct as the first one dedicated entirely to presenting Elon Musk’s EV maker in a negative light, will be aired and paid by one of its most fiercest critics, Dan O’Dowd from Dawn Project fame. He has been known to pay influencers to badmouth Tesla’s self-driving features online, and recently created a crash test trying to demonstrate that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta kit has a bling spot for small children.
The Tesla attack ad that will air during the Super Bowl festivities will reportedly feature a Model 3 running over child mannequins and hitting strollers, as well as passing stopped school buses or ignoring Do Not Enter street signs. After the last FSD Beta child crash controversy, Tesla owners started staging tests with their own children to prove the opposite and YouTube was forced to take them down for violating its community guidelines. It would be interesting to follow if the first direct Tesla attack ad will have an impact on any potential post-Super Bowl sales bump.
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Daniel Zlatev – Tech Writer – 587 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021
Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.
Daniel Zlatev, 2023-02-12 (Update: 2023-02-13)
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Daniel Zlatev