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A space heater whose marketing somehow mentions Elon Musk

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by ChapmanF, Jan 2, 2023.

  1. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    A family member recently told me about buying a space heater (no, wait, buying two), after seeing or hearing it advertised with some kind of word salad that includes Elon and also Musk.

    As far as I can determine, Elon Musk isn't operating any space-heater businesses. Am I wrong? I suspect that J. Random Company is out there selling cheapo space heaters and working Musk's name into the advertising somehow. From what I could get out of my family member, the spiel is something like "inflation! war in Ukraine! energy crisis! heating gas will be really expensive! Elon Musk is smart and said something about space heaters once! that makes this space heater a really good thing because Elon Musk! buy one, or buy two, so you can heat with even-more-expensive electricity!".

    I wasn't able to get any more details. In the ecosystems where this family member hangs out, it seems like advertisers routinely assume they can just throw together some spiel like that and the audience will go right out and buy the thing (or two of the thing) without even thinking to ask whether it has any real connection to the person whose name's being used, and without even remembering the name of the product or who the payment was sent to.

    And I guess those advertisers keep making that assumption because they reach enough people like my family member for it to pay off.

    Does anybody know anything more about this rumored thing than I do?
     
    #1 ChapmanF, Jan 2, 2023
  2. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #2 tochatihu, Jan 3, 2023
  3. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Hilarious.

    I haven't seen this one, but I noticed long ago that space heaters were sold with an interesting sort of marketing. Never really could put my finger on it, but let's say it persisted and seems to sell well to the arithmetically challenged.

    I think the closest Musk came was the not-a-flamethrower, and one would hope this to be a feature of the heater as well.
     
    #3 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Jan 3, 2023
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I did see that, but assumed it probably wasn't what family member impulsively ordered two of.
     
    #4 ChapmanF, Jan 3, 2023
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    By any chance, did they mention "crypto" too? A brief search found that Musk made a joke some time ago about using crypto miners as space heaters, so that the heater was doing dual tasks, and possibly pay for its own energy use. Did someone push that idea to an actual product?

    reddit -- elon_musk_next_billion_dollar_idea_bitcoin_mining
    Did Silicon Valley Reinvent the Bus Again? | Crypto bros reinventing the space heater

    (I don't have a FB login, but it did pop up in a google search.)

    Yes, someone did:

    https://www.heatbit.com/
     
    #5 fuzzy1, Jan 3, 2023
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    At $1200 each, I hope that also is not the thing....
     
    #6 ChapmanF, Jan 3, 2023
  7. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I've seen YouTube titles for:
    • Elon Musk hydrogen fuel cells
    • Elon Musk V8 engines
    Never forget that 'a lie can circle the globe three times while the truth is putting on its pants.'

    Bob Wilson
     
    #7 bwilson4web, Jan 4, 2023
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