Tech billionaire Elon Musk has been mocked in a huge advert at a London bus stop for a Tesla re-brand. The poster, displayed at Pollard Row in Bethnal Green, appears to show the Space X founder standing inside a Tesla car performing what could be interpreted as a Nazi salute.
It uses the slogan ‘Tesla the Swasticar’ alluding to a controversial gesture made by Musk at President Trump’s inauguration, accompanied by the words: ‘Goes from 0 to 1939 in three seconds.’. Footage posted on TikTok by the account ‘Everyone hates Elon’ shows a person in a high-vis jacket replacing the original poster with the one of Musk.
It comes after Musk was accused of giving a “Nazi-style” salute as he delivered a speech during celebrations for Donald Trump’s inauguration. The page reads: “Not happy with fuelling the far-right in the USA, Elon Musk is now doing the same in Europe.
“We can’t let the richest man in the world poison our politics. While nurses use food banks, his wealth grew by $200 billion last year. “Everyone Hates Elon is doing actions holding Elon to account. All proceeds will go directly towards the costs of our campaigning.”.
The world’s richest man made a strange hand gesture and drew online comparisons to the fascist salute in January, although he quickly dismissed criticism. Biting his bottom lip, he thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together. Then he turned and made the same hand gesture to the crowd behind him.
"My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured," he said as he finished the gesture. In January, a British political campaign group projected an image of Elon Musk making a hand gesture that some interpreted as a Nazi salute onto a German Tesla factory.
The projection on the side of a Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin, featuring the words “Heil Tesla” – with an image of the electric car firm’s billionaire owner making the gesture during a speech celebrating new US president Donald Trump’s inauguration.
