Tesla owners across America are looking to distance themselves from company boss Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO has become increasingly right-wing and, basically, batshit crazy. To do this, they’re doing the only thing any normal person would: they’re buying loads and loads of bumper stickers.
Instead of selling off their cars in protest of Musk’s close ties to convicted felon Donald Trump and neo-Nazi propaganda, Tesla owners across the U.S. are doing the next best thing and are buying bumper stickers emblazoned with slogans like “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy,” reports Futurism.
The stickers, which are available online through retailers like Etsy, are proving really popular among Tesla owners across America, as Futurism explains:
“I started making stickers on my own before the Elon sticker,” explained Matthew Hiller, the Waikiki resident behind the popular Etsy shop “Mad Puffer Stickers.”
An aquarium employee who often makes “fish stickers” for work, Hiller said that he got the idea to start making his tongue-in-cheek accessories in 2023 when considering buying a Tesla of his own. After Musk purchased Twitter and started his “extreme censoring,” however, the creative realized he definitely couldn’t handle the heat that came with being associated with such a toxic brand — and that gave him an idea.
“I figured, there’s no way I’m buying a Tesla — but there have got to be so many people who are so embarrassed to be repping him on the streets driving their Teslas and who want to completely disavow this guy,” Hiller told Heatmap. “Because I know I would want to sell mine immediately after I saw what he was doing.”
As well as the “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy” sticker, Hiller also offers a simple design with “Elon” with a red cross through it, another that simply says “Shut Up Elon” and one called the “Anti Elon Tesla Club,” which is my personal favorite.
The stickers are selling well, and Hiller explained to Heatmap that things have only gotten better off the back of the election, which has shown Musk’s true colors for all to see. Now that he could have a seat of power in Trump’s government, disgruntled Tesla fans are flocking to Hiller’s shop:
There were major points when the sales spiked beyond anything that had happened before. The first time was when Elon went on stage with Trump at one of the rallies, and that solidified what everybody already knew: that he was in the tank for Trump, and he was going to put his full fortune behind getting the guy elected.
Then after the election, there was another huge bunch of sales because people were like, “Oh my God, this guy is now going to have a part in this government.” This was so in-your-face and so disgusting — he’s just filling Trump’s coffers with his money in exchange for position and power and influence. And it showed in the sales that other people thought so, too: I must have sold probably 250 or 300 that day, and it’s been steady ever since.
Hiller now says he can hardly keep up with demand and shipping out orders from his base in Hawaii is filling his evenings. At least someone’s doing well off the back of Musk’s crazed power trip.
