Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 🚗 Tesla is now actively advertising its products after announcing plans to do so earlier in the year.
- 🇯🇵 Recent Tesla advertisements were spotted at Tokyo Haneda International Airport in Japan.
- 📺 The airport displays featured various ads, including information about the Tesla Model Y, Autopilot, Superchargers, Camp Mode, and more.
- 📱 Each advertisement included a QR code for viewers to scan and visit Tesla’s website.
- 🧐 There has been ongoing debate about the level of advertising Tesla should engage in, with some advocating for more advertising to educate the public about its products.
- 📰 Tesla has largely relied on word of mouth and Elon Musk’s social media presence for promotion.
In the past, Tesla didn’t spend any money on advertising its products, only launching plans to test the ad waters earlier this year. However, since the announcement that Tesla would begin to promote its cars, several of the company’s ad campaigns have been spotted in public — including one recent sighting in a Japanese airport.
X user Omarr0717 spotted a large row of screens featuring Tesla advertisements at the Tokyo Haneda International Airport this week, as posted in a short video. The displays shared a range of ads, including information about the Tesla Model Y, the Autopilot system, Superchargers, Camp Mode and more.
The advertisements cycled through the different topics on a huge row of side-by-side screens, each including a QR code that viewers could scan to navigate directly to the automaker’s website. You can see Omar’s full 19-second video of the advertisements below, as posted on X.
The news comes after much discussion in recent weeks and months about how much Tesla should invest in advertising. CEO Elon Musk only announced plans to commit to “a little advertising” in May, and some still say the automaker needs to advertise more, despite a string of Tesla advertisements being spotted in recent months.
One such Tesla bull who has been pro-advertising for Tesla is Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black, who has criticized the automaker for not making its consumers aware of its products through ads. Black said in April that he thought Tesla should use ads to help educate its audience about its vehicles, especially as the automaker cut prices across its entire lineup.
More recently, Black suggested that Tesla could improve its perception in mainstream media sources through advertising by highlighting the gradually decreasing costs of its vehicles to consumers. He’s also been outspoken about the company embracing a public relations approach, saying that Tesla refuses to engage when false stories and details come out in traditional news sources.
Tesla got rid of its public relations department in 2020, declining to respond to press inquiries ever since. The move represented the first time in history that an automaker had completely dissolved its PR department, representing just one of Tesla’s many unique approaches compared to traditional car manufacturers.
Musk has also echoed the concept that Tesla advertisements could help educate the public about the company’s vehicles, with related statements dating as far back as 2021. Still, Tesla has largely focused on word of mouth to advertise its products, along with Musk’s regular posts on X about Tesla and many other unrelated subjects.
