Elon Musk will wish he got over his hatred of advertising long ago
Tesla’s founder has successfully built a brand by shunning ads – but they convince the mass market to pay a premium, and would deliver the profit margin boost the company sorely needs.
By Mark Ritson
I don’t know when James Danforth bought Tesla shares. I do know that he owns 850 of them. That may not sound much, but it makes his stock worth about $800,000 (£630,000) at current prices. The company has quintupled its share price since May 2019 and last night became the world’s biggest auto company by marketing capitalisation, making Mr Danforth a cool half a million dollars over the last 12 months.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Danforth – a Californian with an MBA from Oxford – is keen Tesla continues this trajectory and makes him even more money in the months ahead. To that end, he has tabled a vote at Tesla’s upcoming shareholder meeting. In July, he will ask Telsa’s board to commit to something that the famously disruptive company has never countenanced in its 17-year history.
He will ask them to start advertising.
