Elon Musk has a unique plan to solve Twitter's ad problems

• Elon Musk owns X, formerly Twitter, which has an advertising problem.
• Musk controls Tesla, which famously didn't buy advertising until very recently.

The company formerly known as Twitter has a well-known advertising problem: It is owned by Elon Musk, who does his best to repel advertisers.

So look at a (very partial) solution to Twitter's advertising problem: Elon Musk!

More specifically, Elon Musk's Tesla, which is advertising on the company formerly known as Twitter:

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This new? Tesla ads on X. pic.twitter.com/uM6X0cQnKL

— Jay Yarow (@jyarow) March 5, 2024

The answer to Jay's question, by the way: This is newish. Tesla started running versions of these last month on the platform formerly known as Twitter, as well as on YouTube and TikTok.

But, like Jay, I hadn't seen these on my feed until Tuesday. Here's the version I've seen, touting the Model Y as a snow-ready machine, which is … surprising.

Model Y starts at $36,490 after Federal Tax Credit for eligible buyers

Book a Demo Drive to try it https://t.co/McJ7TwPy4c

— Tesla (@Tesla) February 29, 2024

Beyond the novelty, a couple of other ideas:

• Tesla isn't the only Big Name Brand I've seen advertising on Twitter recently. I was surprised to see Netflix on the site promoting its "Ripley" show. Turns out that after "pausing" advertising on Twitter following Musk's most recent outburst last fall, the streamer started up again in December.

• Tesla, of course, is famous for not advertising, ever, because it didn't need to: People loved the product, and Musk was really good at promoting it, for free, on the site that used to be called Twitter. Now Musk has overpaid for Twitter, has seen many of his advertisers flee, and is now (theoretically) paying to advertise there himself. Circle of life.