A person like Elon Musk does not need to justify himself when it comes to selling what his heart desires. He started with baseball caps and sold them as promotional merchandise. He is one of the favorite meme personality as well. Little did people know the man had a few other things up his sleeve to serve as marketing gadgets as well. Flamethrowers being one of them.
What actually is a Flame thrower?
The Boring Company CEO pledged to remit fire blasting machines when they sell 50,000 Boring Company hats. Naturally, this assumed as a joke, to people interested in buying them.
Knowing his audience, Musk played with their hearts and emotions. Small promotional videos by the tech billionaire himself and his employees holding the mentioned fire-breathing device a day after its announcement.
Being the founder of crucial and profound companies, Musk wore an exuberant expression in the videos. On January 27th, 2018, they put the flamethrowers for purchasing on the Boring Company website for $500 each. Making $3.5 million over a petty joke is something only Elon Musk is capable of doing.
The Project got a massive success
It would be safe to say that the project got an unarguably definite success. Boring Company sold all 20k flamethrowers made by then in less than a week after its release on January 27th, 2018. By February 1st, the instrument sold out. Musk eventually changed the branding name to “Not-A-Flamethrower”. He did this because of some custom regulations and rules when some companies refused the shipment of the flamethrowers.
Promoting his own creation Musk tweeted. Here is what he said “When the zombie apocalypse happens, you’ll be glad you bought a flamethrower. Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!”. Teasing his fanbase, the CEO tweeted about the flamethrower’s idea as a super terrible idea, and motivated his followers not to buy one “unless you like fun.”
Some Criticism on Flamethrower:
Needless to say, every person did not come in favor. Democrat Miguel Santiago tried to suppress the sales. He criticized the heights this design was likely to achieve by tweeting, “If this is real, I’m outraged and you should be too. If this is a joke, then it’s a terribly insensitive one given that we’re coming off of the worst wildfire season in history. Either way: NOT FUNNY. NOT GONNA HAPPEN.”
Additional criticism include Brooks saying, “Considering flamethrowers to be toys for recreational use is a bit of a head-scratcher. This bill will protect kids, families, and neighbours from irresponsible and dangerous ‘play’. Weapons of war do not belong in our backyards”. Elon Musk defending his work assured his buyers that the flames blasted did not surpass farther than 10ft and declared it “A-OK”. But who knows that critics will be convinced by this or not.
Ignoring the downside and backlash any outstanding creation faces, the flamethrower helped Musk’s Boring Company achieve a new sales milestone and they achieved a prodigious success.