Elon Musk paid for our attention, but the price to keep it is getting higher
Say what? | Illustration: Laura Normand / The Verge
I see Elon Musk has pivoted from pretending he’s going to physically fight Mark Zuckerberg to pretending he is going to sue the Anti-Defamation League. Okay. There are people who still take Musk seriously, and I wish them well on their journey. This blog is for the rest of us.
Obviously, there’s a level of attention-seeking behavior at play. Some of this is financially motivated: Musk is perhaps the most important influencer in the world. His tweets move markets. And he faces the same problem as other influencers. The danger of being too famous is overexposure — people get sick of you.
Musk’s public persona is an important marketing tool. Consider his appearance on Saturday Night Live: Tesla…