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In March this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the site selection for CyberTruck electric pickup truck factory. Subsequently, many states in the United States offered Tesla preferential terms. Among them, the action of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is "the most solemn and stirring". In order to attract Tesla's attention, they even turned the landmark of the city into a "Mask Statue". As a result, Tesla announced last month that it would build a Cyberrock factory in Austin, Texas
It is generally said that Tesla is only using Tulsa as leverage, and the latter is always in a "catch up" state, so that Tesla can extract as much value from Texas and local governments as possible, just like the site selection of the first Gigafactory factory six years ago.
Nevertheless, Tulsa's unique promotional activities also achieved good enough results to allow Musk to watch in person, and was also invited to the Kennedy Space Center to participate in the SpaceX astronaut launch and have dinner with Musk. Musk also said that the state would be "strongly considered" for future projects.
Turn the statue of "Oil Worker" into "Musk"
In May this year, Kurt Stenstrom needed someone to take a lift more than 70 feet high to measure the facial data of the "Golden Driller" statue before dressing it as Elon Musk, Tesla CEO.
The statue of Golden Driller is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was built in 1966 and has seven floors. It is a local landmark. In the past few years, it has often been decorated to promote everything from the new park to the rock station. However, no one has ever decorated this face before, so someone needs to measure it first.
After the measurement, Stanstrom opened Photoshop on his Mac mini computer. He adjusted a composite image of Musk's face, which he had taken overnight the night before. The lithography company he works for only has more than one day to dress Golden Driller as a Musk, and then officials in Tulsa will announce that they will strive to let Tesla build a new CyberTruck electric pickup factory in the city. Therefore, Stanstrom should be faster.
The effort to win Tesla finally failed because Tesla would build its factory outside Austin, Texas. Musk told the media that this decision was made because some key employees of the company wanted to move to Austin, not Tulsa. It's hard to imagine Tulsa really having a chance.
But according to Tulsa officials who have been courting Tesla for the past few months, they hope Tesla will think twice before acting, and put forward an offer before Musk that would dwarf the Texas proposal. In fact, if it was not for a series of "viral" ideas, such as painting Musk's face and Tesla's logo on Golden Driller, and promoting "Big Fucking Field" through a mysterious website, they would not even appear on Tesla's radar.
The government embarrasses itself in order to win big business, which is also part of the cost of doing business. Remember when major cities tried to persuade Amazon , let Amazon believe that their city is the best choice for Amazon's new headquarters?
Catering to Musk almost succeeded
But Musk likes meme (facial expression pack), and it is not once or twice that Musk has made a hot search by playing meme. In the past few months, Tulsa has racked its brains to try to land the CyberTruck pickup truck factory. And it almost succeeded.
The story of competing for Tesla's new factory, like many other stories about Tesla, began with a tweet from Musk.
On March 10 this year, Musk Twitter It said: "The site selection for CyberTruck GigaFactory will be in the central part of the United States." Musk also added that in addition to manufacturing CyberTruck pickup trucks, the factory will also produce Model Y SUVs.
In 2016, Tesla opened its first Gigafactory factory in Nevada. Subsequently, Tesla called the Solar City factory acquired in 2016 "GigaFactory 2". In 2019, Tesla built the third Gigafactory factory in China. Recently, the fourth Gigafactory factory outside Berlin, Germany, broke ground.
However, Tesla's only automobile manufacturing plant in the United States, Fremont, California, faced insufficient capacity in 2018. To solve this problem, Tesla once built a temporary tent plant to produce the Model 3S. With the launch of Model Y earlier this year and the release of new models such as CyberTruck, Tesla Semi and new sports cars, Tesla needs to build another factory in North America.
At the beginning of 2014, when Tesla announced that it was seeking to build the first Gigafactory factory, it carried out some form of roadshow and invited bids from all over the country in the hope of obtaining large-scale tax incentives. Tesla finally obtained a $1.3 billion preferential package from Nevada, which was the largest package in the history of Nevada and one of the 15 largest packages in the United States at that time.
This method is very effective. In fact, it also attracted the attention of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and became the way Amazon used to find the location of its second headquarters (HQ2).
Mystery website appears
For Cybertruck pickup truck factory, Musk seems to be ready to use a similar strategy. After his March 10 tweet (Twitter news) was released, it was immediately reported that Tesla was considering Nashville, Tennessee. By that weekend, Colorado, Arkansas and other states had contacted Tesla, while Joplin, Missouri, provided land and incentive programs. In addition, there is a mysterious website that promises to develop "Big Fucking Field" in Tulsa, and there is a Twitter account with the same name next to it.
On March 17, the website wrote: "Hey, Elon (Musk), we heard that you need a large site. We just have a place to put your CyberTruck GigaFactory factory in Tulsa." But the website did not give an official contact name or phone number, nor did it give a government e-mail address. There is only some information about 1500 acres.
The website continued: "Don't trust us. Trust your friends. Tulsa's good friends are gaining national recognition.". Below, there are four false statements made by people connected with Musk to varying degrees.
Joe Logan: Elon, this is good grass (land). I'm serious, man
Steve Jobs: "I've tasted Oklahoma soil and it tastes good."
Peter Tell: "The spirit of unity is heavy on this land."
Edison: "To build Cybertrucks, you need good imagination and broad fields."
In addition, the website is also full of Tesla jokes, such as photos of Ludacris, and the "mega rave cave" tweet referring to Musk. The website even recorded the distance (1053 miles) to the headquarters of Musk's favorite regulator (the US Securities and Exchange Commission).
The team behind the website is a marketing company called "Gitwit Creative". Jacob Johnson, one of the co founders of Gitwit Creative, said in a telephone interview that his team created it out of a whim after seeing Musk's tweet. The only guideline of his team is to do whatever they want and what the city should do. Johnson said that his goal is to "strive to enter Tesla's radar, which is a challenge for medium-sized cities like Tulsa."
Government officials strongly support
Just as the "Big Fucking Field" was planned to go online, Sean Kouplen, Oklahoma's Minister of Commerce and Labor Development, said that people kept sending him Musk's original tweets.
Although Oklahoma has not officially started anything, Kupouren believes it is worth a try. He greeted Musk on Twitter and Facebook And LinkedIn. He even called Governor Kevin Stitt and asked him to contact Musk on Twitter.
"I said, 'Hey, can you tweet Elon (Musk)? You know, maybe he will see it‘“
Stitt later wrote on Twitter: "Oklahoma is very innovative. Oklahoma is the center of the United States. Oklahoma is the hometown of trucks. Let's talk, @ Elon Musk.". Kupouren said that an employee of Tesla finally told him that Musk had received about 40000 tweets from his early promotion.
Unexpected epidemic
However, when all this happened in the middle of March, the coronavirus was spreading rapidly in the United States, and the first signs that it was necessary to shut down began to appear. One of the first areas to implement the ban in the United States was some counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Alameda, where Tesla Fremont factory is located. Tesla, along with other companies deemed unnecessary, had to suspend operations for several weeks.
Musk was furious. In his view, the newly confirmed cases in the United States will be "close to zero" by the end of April. He worked hard to keep the Fremont plant operating, while downplaying the risks posed by the virus. As some parts of the country began to consider relaxing restrictions at the end of April and early May, Musk broke out. He wrote on Twitter on April 29: "Now is a free America, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes... This violates all their constitutional rights."
In April, Musk threatened to move Tesla's business completely out of California, and asked Tesla to sue Alameda County. Subsequently, he violated the public health order and reopened the Fremont factory on May 11. On May 15, it was reported that Tesla had chosen Austin, Texas, as the location of CyberTruck factory. Whatever Musk's plan, it seems to have ended.
Tulsa still insists
Is that true? A few hours after the report was published, three other media reported that Tulsa was still in competition.
At the same time, Kupoulen and others have been making various efforts to attract Tesla to Tulsa throughout March and April. This starts with supporting what Gitwit Creative is doing. "We have really studied Tesla's culture... and it is a fairly free company. They are very real," Kupouren said
For the website created by Gitwit Creative, Kupoulun described it as "a bit like Hail Mary (there is no way to be blind)". He said: "At that time, our chances were very slim. Therefore, we hope that this will attract their attention, make us a little famous, and perhaps bring us a little attraction."
At the same time, Gitwit Creative is also constantly adjusting its website to adapt to the development of the real world. "In late May, they wrote:" Yes, I heard that this is between us and Austin. The choice seems quite clear. But if not... please allow us to help. ". There is also a link to a new website (austinsaysno. com) at the bottom of the website, which is full of hypothetical reasons for "Austin doesn't want Tesla".
This series of bets actually worked. Kupoulen said that Tesla and Oklahoma began to discuss what the factory would look like in that state, and he began to look for the appropriate address in the city. After a brief conference call, the state submitted a preliminary proposal and formally started the competition. (Currently, Tesla has not commented on this.)
But at this time, Tesla has locked a place in Texas, and has started some boring things incidental to such projects, such as finalizing details with local officials in closed door meetings. It seems that Tulsa needs more memes.
Johnson, co-founder of Gitwit Creative, said that dressing Golden Driver as a Musk is a special effect we can do to support Tesla on behalf of Tulsa.
Johnson's team sent models to Stanstrom and his employer Meeks Lithography. Andrew Aldridge is one of the two "installers" who painted Mask's face on the statue. He said that many people think that Mask's face is painted on it, but in fact, it is a vinyl material used to wrap the vehicle. Golden Driller looks ridiculous, but it is really perfect.
Johnson said, "All we know is that this will attract media attention. This has really become our only goal: how can we stay in Tesla executives' Twitter and inbox all the time?"
In late May, on a sunny Wednesday morning, Danny O'Connor stood in front of the statue of Golden Driller "wearing a mask". O'Connor, known as "Danny Boy", is a rapper who, together with Everlast, formed "House of Pain" in the 1990s. O'Connor was trying to pass the time until Mayor G.T. Bynum appeared.
In the late spring sun, O'Connor turned to the 70 foot tall statue behind him. "Can you take a look at this big guy? I mean, come on! Elon (Musk), we have prepared a big piece of land for you. Believe me, my friend. A few beats passed, and he repeated it again. Isn't this the largest and coolest statue you have ever seen?"
Mask Statue Unveiled
With the end of the parade, Bynum finally arrived at the event site. He talked about Tulsa's love for entrepreneurs, and how the city initially flourished due to the rise of the oil industry (Tulsa is known as the "capital of oil", and the Golden Driller statue also commemorates oil workers). He talked about how Tesla helped the city restart this cycle, but the focus was on clean energy.
He said: "As a community, we are very excited about the potential cooperation opportunities in front of us. So, as a community, we came up with something that I think is quite cool, as a way to show how we hope to spread the red carpet and cooperate with this company."
When people lifted the translucent mask on the Golden Driller, he issued an order: "Let's look at the golden Elon (Mask)." On this huge golden Mask statue, Tesla's logo and the words "Tesla" were also painted.
After seeing the "Golden Musk", Kupoulun thought: "Oh, my god, we will irritate every oil and gas producer in Oklahoma. These companies are very powerful and important, and have made many contributions to the city." But Kupoulun also said that when he called "several oil and gas executives", they did not mind. Kupouren said that finally, they realized that everyone was "trying to figure out the best way to keep us in the game", so as to attract Tesla to build a factory here.
Johnson still remembers looking at the statue and thinking, "Oh, my God, what have we just done?".
He smiled and said, "I still don't know whether anyone will repay us for this."
Soon, "Golden Musk" spread crazily on the Internet. Bynum posted a Cybertruck model that looks like a Tulsa police car on Twitter, and a weather forecaster in Tulsa posted his own Cybertruck model with a TV station logo on Twitter. A local production company also spoofed the Lincoln advertisement, in which Matthew McConaughey changed the vehicle used to Tesla Model 3.
Johnson said: "Everyone in Tulsa community, whether official or unofficial, has made incredible concerted efforts to prove that we can do some different things and finally show the kind of innovation that really exists here."
Invited to SpaceX manned launch
In late May, they made another breakthrough. At the invitation of NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Kupouren and Stitt went to the Kennedy Space Center in late May to participate in the SpaceX astronaut launch. This includes having dinner with the alternate astronauts, and of course Musk.
Kupoulen said that the discussion at that time focused on the space issue, which was of course informal. (They ate pizza, and Kupouren was sure that Musk ate pepperoni). Kupoulun also found an opportunity to tell Musk, "If Tesla doesn't come to Oklahoma, he is the one who was fired."
At the end of the party that night, Musk asked Kupoulen and Stitt about the labor force in Oklahoma. Musk gave Kupouren his email address and asked about "Golden Musk". Just over a month later, Musk flew to Tulsa to see the "Big Fucking Field" in person.
Tulsa used by Tesla?
In the past two months, it has been widely said that Tesla is only using Tulsa as leverage; It is just "catching up", so that Tesla can extract as much value from Texas and local governments as possible, just like the site selection event held six years ago.
It is undeniable that this has indeed accelerated some discussions in Texas. After weeks of closed door discussions and marathon public comment meetings, officials in Travis County, where Austin is located, finally debated whether to vote on the incentive plan. An official hopes to have another week to digest the deal. But others fear that any further delay will benefit Tulsa.
Officials turned to Rohan Patel, Tesla's senior director of global public policy, who was attending a video conference and asked if Tesla could wait another week. Patel told Travis County officials that Tesla had just met with the state from another state and city the day before Long and The mayor talked on the phone. Patel refused to reveal more information, but this insinuation was enough to scare Austin officials. They decided to vote and approve the deal.
However, Tesla only received about $60 million in tax relief from Travis County and the local Del Valle School District. The Texas Governor's Office told the media that when Tesla chose Nevada six years ago, the state's incentives for Tesla were zero.
At the same time, according to Kupoulen, Oklahoma has drafted a proposal that is "equivalent" to Nevada's incentive plan. Although Tesla never tried to reach an agreement with Oklahoma at a public meeting, as in Texas, Kupoulen said that the state and Tesla spent about two months discussing the details of the state proposal. He refused to discuss details because of the confidentiality agreement with Tesla.
Kupoulun said: This is really a great thing. We really threw everything on the table. State governments, municipal governments, and local foundations are all involved. We are also trying to come up with a package comparable to our competitors. We did it. "
Musk said as early as March that incentives will play a role in Tesla's decision on where to build the factory, but local labor and quality of life will also play a role. At the beginning of August, after Tesla announced that it had chosen the land outside Austin, he told the media that frankly, the reason for this decision was that some key employees of the company wanted to move to Austin instead of Tulsa.
"Musk's face" is covered by a mask
Tesla's arrival in Austin may have been a fait accompli. After all, a month before Musk launched the factory site selection with one tweet, he also sent another tweet, simply saying "Giga Texas?" (factory site selection in California?) and attaching a public opinion poll. (The two options are "Yes" and "No". Of 300000 people, 80.2% chose the former.)
However, the meme promotion activity in Tulsa has also achieved good results. It's really good to let Musk watch it in person.
Tesla may have abandoned Oklahoma, but Musk said that the state will be "strongly considered" for future projects. Kupouren pointed out that, after all, Oklahoma has an automobile manufacturing base and is already the headquarters of suppliers in the aerospace industry. It should be noted that the SpaceX under Musk also needs more space.
As for the statue of Golden Driller, "Mask's face" was eventually replaced by a surgical mask to try to encourage Tulsa people to fight off the new coronavirus. As for that website, it has been redesigned as a page similar to MySpace.
