Tesla

I tend to yo-yo on my feelings with Tesla motors. This video (and article) of the Tesla plant hits all the right spots in my nerd brain: technology, robots, nice cars. And it passed the 5 year old test (“Can we watch it again Daddy?”) too.

I like Tesla cars quite a bit. If I had a spare $60-70k to burn on a car, I just might get a Model S.

Which is why I find it particularly frustrating when they pull marketing like this.

“$580 per month”?

That $580 isn’t as low as it once was, but the snake oil in that ad has already been covered by plenty of others. If you need a 3 line asterisk to describe the “true cost of ownership” of your product, your message might be a little muddled. The cars could practically market themselves, but the leadership of the company seems to think it’s not enough and stoops to this level.

These things seem at odds with each other, but I think there is a line to walk. I can like the cars/engineering/tech for what they are, and try to close my eyes when their marketing goes bananas. It’s not like I have a vote in the situation, democratically or dollar-wise, anyway. (Plus, rooting for brands is just dumb.)

Written by Scott Williams who lives and works in sunny Phoenix, AZ. Twitter is also a place.