Elon Musk mocked for ’10-year-old’s YouTube’ Twitter advert
Elon Musk is being mocked for an animated promo for X (X/Tesla Owners Silicon Valley)
Elon Musk is being mocked for sharing a bizarre post on X – this time over an animated video promoting the brand.
On Tuesday (9 January), the business mogul reposted the video on his own account on the social media platform, from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account, which labels itself the “most notorious Tesla club in the world”.
The clip shows a black panther-esque creature, streaked with glowing violet stripes, running through a jungle before snarling and leaping towards the viewer. It scratches through the screen with its claws, to reveal the X logo which is backed by flames.
The video quickly became the subject of social media users’ jokes, with some likening it to an early 2000 bowling alley strike animation.
“This video will do a phenomenal job of making sure everyone continues to call it Twitter,” one X user responded.
A second quipped: “It’s giving eight year old just made his first windows movie maker movie vibes.”
Another wrote, bluntly: “You are a billionaire. This is a video from the dollar tree.”
The mockery continued, with one person even suggesting: “We got to see his fursona,” in reference to furry sub-culture.
Someone else wrote: “This literally reminds me of a 10-year-old kid’s YouTube intro.”
Musk’s ownership of the social media platform, which he bought in October 2022 for $44 billion (approximately £35.6 billion), hasn’t been without controversy. He fired large numbers of staff without notice, and a report in The Guardian this week says the brand’s value has fallen by more than 70 per cent since the acquisition and name change, according mutual fund Fidelity which owns a stake in X Holdings.
User engagement was also reported to have dropped in the first year of Musk’s ownership.
In addition, Musk has been criticised by not-for-profit groups, who have accused him of allowing a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ hate and misinformation on the site.
Musk has threatened to sue the groups.
Recent research found that the social media site is one of the most dangerous for queer folks, with GLAAD, which produced the report, citing the fact that the company’s hateful-conduct policy no longer prohibits deadnaming and misgendering.
The platform has also reinstated previously banned figures, including the founder of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, right-wing pundit Katie Hopkins, prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and former president Donald Trump.
