You may be right. I know Musk's policy re advertising. But when you have revolutionary new products, you can't rely on the media or word of mouth only. The former may confuse or give negative spin, and the latter may not reach scale quickly enough. Revolutionary and/or controversial products need proper communication and education by the company. Apple advertised the first Mac (1984 commercial) and also the latter generation of revolutionary products with the second coming of Steve Jobs (ipod, imac, iphone, etc.). Apple and their products are well know, but they knew they have to advertise and even create their own stores. They can't rely on the media, the public, or other store clerks (Best Buy) to sell their revolutionary products.
I know two people personally who are very smart but don't follow Tesla closely and when I was talking to them about it, one thought that Tesla was going bankrupt and another thought that Musk was a psychopath. But once I explained things to them rationally and with evidence, they were convinced, with one of them even buying stock in Tesla.
The fact of the matter is that the shorts and media smear campaign has unfortunately been very effective to at least create doubt and hesitation on the part of your average consumer (and investor). Maybe Tesla advertising (and beyond just twitter) is the only way they can change this narrative. They need to hire some really good ad agency, like Apple did, and communicate a cool, slick message that shows the full advantage of a Tesla EV over other EVs and over other cars period.
Then goes on to compare the cost of cellphone batteries and extrapolates this out to thousands in an EV.
