Originally published on X Auto.
by Iqtidar Ali | @IqtidarAlii
One of the most popular TV shows in Norway, “Farmen,” gave Tesla free promotion when the host Gaute Grøtta Grav and the participants arrived in five white Tesla Model S at the season premiere last month — according to various ad agency analyses, this could be a six-figure cost for Tesla [TSLA] if it was paid advertisement (which it certainly was not).
The Farmen reality show has been successfully airing on TV2.no since 2001. Participants live on a farm without modern gadgets or help from machines. They have to live there with the facilities that were available 100 years ago.
When the communications manager for Tesla Norway Sandvold Roland was asked how much Tesla paid for this promotion, he replied (Google translate):
“We do not pay for advertising anywhere in the world, it is our global policy. What I can say is that the production company used these cars because they thought it was relevant to the series. We just lent the cars without paying for it.”
With some effort I was able to find this video from the show’s Facebook page, which shows some participants traveling in Teslas. Glimpses of the interior and exterior show up, but they’re carefully edited to avoid views of the entire cars.
Norway is already the world’s electric vehicle epicenter and many of the EVs sold in the country are Teslas — and the majority of new Tesla sales are Model 3 sales. Recently, the Tesla Model 3 broke the Model X’s all time sales record in Norway.
In a country that is converting fast to environmentally friendly cars, this type of “free promotion” makes a lot of difference. However, haters and TSLAQ followers don’t believe that the Silicon Valley–based automaker is getting any free press, because they don’t understand the value of a “belief” or mission-oriented company. “Profit” is what they live for.
Just saying … when we are all exciting to get the V10 update..
On the other side (TSLAQ) … 😂😂😂
Don’t worry 🐻🐻, short squeeze doesn’t even start yet, so hang in there. pic.twitter.com/ccb2yCVuax
— Vincent 🚀🟠 (@vincent13031925) September 27, 2019
Tesla enthusiasts continuously get blamed for being paid promoters of the company across social media and critics even bombard the comments section of pro-Tesla articles accusing them of being paid, as has happened to us and a bunch of others recently.
Source: VG.no
Featured image via Tesla Shuttle
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