It's nothing new that companies find themselves rebranding when things get tough. Often, it's just a little refresher tweak, sometimes it's a brand-new formula (think New Coke), and many times, companies have to distance themselves from political situations that many find unsettling.
The case of Tesla is an interesting one. While some might immediately think of Elon Musk when the brand is mentioned, it was actually founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. According to an article from The Street, the idea was to "develop and produce an entirely electric car after observing the favorable reaction test markets had to General Motors' (GM) previous electric car experiment, the EV1."
Musk, the piece tells us, didn't actually join the company until a year later, after he invested 30 million dollars. For many years to follow, it became a brand synonymous with innovation, clean energy, and luxury.
Elon Musk poses for a photo op.en.wikipedia.org
As Tesla continued to rise in popularity, Elon also gained notoriety around the world. Of course, he was already well known in the business sector—but once he began actively expressing himself on social media, things seemed to take a turn. For one, in 2018, "Musk tweeted that he planned to take the company private 'at $420' and had secured funding to buy back Tesla's shares. This set off a round of active trading as investors raced to grab shares before the privatization buyback, elevating the company's stock price by 10% before trading was halted."
But Tesla didn't actually go private, so the following month the Securities and Exchange Commission charged him with securities fraud. Musk and Tesla wound up paying 20 million dollar fines. And though the brand has had great success, and in many ways continues to do so, it has had its share of lawsuits, battles with public image, and yes, late-night tweets. But the thing is, it has never actually "rebranded."
So people are doing it for them. Due to the rise in vandalism toward Tesla (car-keying, fires, spray-paint, etc.), some are desperately trying to go incognito.
@Dannyrayes on TikTok shows us a few attempts of people putting other car "badges" over their existing Tesla logo. The Audi emblem fares extremely well, as it's hard to distinguish between the two. However, the biggest fails are those hysterically attempting to make us think their Cybertrucks are Toyotas. It would be the equivalent of putting a squirrel sticker on a giraffe and exclaiming, "Look at that awesome squirrel!"
Danny includes a clip of someone keying their car and notes that one person "just vandalized his own car, so no one else would do it first."
The comments do not disappoint. One TikTok user points out how illogical it is: "There is no exhaust, so there’s that." And this one is plain genius: "I wonder if people will put Tesla logos on their exes' cars."
Here, TikToker @Molesrcool shows a montage of those trying Ford and other "rough and tough" brands as fake logos to fool the world.
A few point out that it's not so much tricking others as making a funny statement on purpose. Says one commenter, "I think some of them are deliberate... it's satire, like saying 'yeh, I can't get rid of this right now... so let's make fun of it whilst I've got it.'"
In summation, perhaps this comment says it all: "At this point they might as well try putting a lamp shade on top of it and pretend it's a lamp."
Represntative Image: Some people think the obits are the best part of the paper. 
Represntative Image: It only took William Ziegler 25 years to realize he wasn't cut out for fire fighting. 
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TikTok shocked by 15-year-old unhinged viral clip of kids performing Scarface in school play
Think about the most outrageous film that could be adapted to the stage. Now, imagine the cast of that theatrical production is entirely children, ranging in age from 7 to 10. Now, film it and let the world react.
That’s what director Marc Klasfeld had in mind when he held auditions with professional child actors for a shocking video, meant to look like an elementary school production of the cult film-favorite Scarface. In a now 15-year-old interview with Entertainment Weekly, when asked why he thought this was a good idea, Klasfeld admits, "I thought this would be a nice fit into the kind of YouTube arena of viral videos. And I was right."
The result? Kids yelling “mother-fudger,” piles of popcorn meant to look like cocaine, and outrageous, lengthy scenes of children pointing Super Soakers at one another.
Marc, mostly known as an accomplished commercial and music video director, later adds, "I enjoy making provocative art. I like stirring debate and causing conversation. You're going to get two sides of the coin no matter what you do. People are going to love and hate everything. People loved and hated Avatar. People loved and hated the Jennifer Aniston movie. And people love and hate this. I guess that's a part of having something that's successful out there. There’s got to be certain people that hate it for people to love it."
Once they got their perfect cast, it didn’t take long to put together. He shares, "It was a one-take, so it was pretty much just choosing the right take. About a month altogether."
People sure did react, as it acquired millions of views and comments from all over the Internet. Some were horrified, some were outraged, and many thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. But Marc emphasizes that the kids in the video were not scandalized. "They’ve heard the f-word. They’ve seen more violence in their everyday lives for as long as they can remember. So for this, they’ve seen worse things than this all the time. So this wasn’t that big of a deal for them."
Enter TikTok. The clip (which just popped up again recently on Facebook) was reposted a few years back, and, once again, the comments continue to run the gamut from indignation to full praise. One TikTok user exclaimed, "Bro, I can’t even remember my grocery list, how the fudge did these kids memorize this whole scene lol?"
Others expressed confusion: "I'm not sure whether to be angry or amazed." Some chose anger: "Just imagine, you know these kids watched the movie to get the characters right. And the parents cheering? Yeah, yeah."
Many commenters believed it was a real school play and commended the production for "keepin' it real": "That school keeps it real. Nowadays, kids know so much about guns and drugs, might as well teach them that bad choices don’t end well."
Yet another enjoyed it but was concerned that the parents of the children would not. "Love the tray full of popcorn. But my God, I would hate to see the hell these parents probably raised."
For the most part, the reviews were glowing. Many complimented the acting, and one claimed they definitely would have "preferred this play over their own school production of Macbeth."
And perhaps the biggest compliment? "Al Pacino will be proud."