A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Tesla sales are falling dramatically. The company's revenue from cars dropped 20% in the first quarter compared to the same time last year. Tesla blames that on factors such as customers waiting for the new version of its Model Y. Industry analysts say it's also because of the way customers view CEO Elon Musk, especially his government-slashing actions leading the unit known as DOGE. Now, that's prompted thousands of Tesla owners to slap stickers on their cars that read...
MATT HILLER: I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy. The Anti-Elon Tesla Club. Elon killed my resale value. Elon is a DOGEbag.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Matt Hiller, founder of Mad Puffer Stickers. He's seen a spike in sales since making a range of anti-Elon slogans.
HILLER: I was interested in buying a Tesla. I liked the tech. I liked the fact that they were good for the environment. But this was around January 2023, and he had bought Twitter already. And he was sort of becoming a bully and sort of pushing disinformation, so it completely turned me off of the idea of buying a Tesla. So I figured - I had this sticker store already, and I just knew there had to be so many people out there like me who just already had the Tesla and are just thinking, like, wow. I mean, I got to distance myself from this.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. I mean, how many stickers about Elon Musk would you say that you've sold since you came up with the idea?
HILLER: So it's looking like I'm closing in on about 70,000. That includes everything - like, magnets, vinyl cling, stickers - across all platforms, which is Amazon, Etsy, eBay, all the foreign Amazons - like, European Amazon stores - and Redbubble.
MARTÍNEZ: Over the course of the last, say, year or so, have there been any particular moments when sales of the stickers spiked?
HILLER: The very first one I can remember is - where it went extra big was when he went on stage with Trump at a rally before the election. At that time, I believe I was getting maybe 50 sales a day, maybe a hundred. I can't even remember at this point, but it spiked so high. It was, like, in the hundreds after that. The next big day after that was after the election. But I would say, by far, the moment that sort of ignited it to where it is now is in January, when he did his salute. I think that just got a lot of people paying attention, and that's when I started hitting 500 sales a day.
MARTÍNEZ: I've seen, you know, the stickers all over the place, but I wanted to talk to a couple of people that have those stickers on their car. So in the parking lot of my local grocery store, I just walked up to a couple of people and asked them why they bought the stickers. And they said a lot of the same things that you said. But they also said that they also didn't want their car to be damaged...
HILLER: Oh, yes.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Because they've seen all of the videos and reports of vandalizing anything Tesla- or Elon Musk-related. Have you heard from people that also are worried that if they don't have a sticker like this, someone might be angry at them and mess up their car?
HILLER: Yes. So occasionally, I get - people on my Etsy store, they buy a sticker as a gift, and then they get to write a little note along with the gift to the recipient. Occasionally, I read the notes, and I see one that says, like, happy birthday from Dad. This is to protect you on the mean streets of LA.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow.
HILLER: I've heard anecdotally that some people who aren't necessarily against Elon would buy the sticker anyway, just as a form of protection on their car.
MARTÍNEZ: So how much money have you made off of all this?
HILLER: I've made, you know, into the six figures.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow.
HILLER: It's kind of changed my life over the last few months, just trying to keep up with it.
MARTÍNEZ: I mean, how long do you think this will go on?
HILLER: If it ended tomorrow, I'm totally fine. You know, I didn't set out to do this, and it's certainly not my business plan going forward. It - I mean, it's not a really good business plan to bank on a billionaire just annoying people forever, right?
MARTÍNEZ: That's Matt Hiller, creator of a bunch of anti-Elon Musk stickers for Tesla owners. Matt, thank you very much.
HILLER: Thank you very much.
MARTÍNEZ: And we just want to note that we reached out to Tesla to ask them about the Mad Puffer stickers. They have yet to respond. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
