Edgy effort launched to bring Tesla to Tulsa

TULSA — With a hashtag and web domain a little too salty for some people's tastes, a grassroots effort to get Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk's attention has begun, in hopes of luring the electric car maker to build a new cybertruck plant in Tulsa.

The competition appears to be Austin, Texas - although the company's been pretty tight-lipped about its decision-making process.

Early reporting from one industry publication indicated that Austin already has the plant sewn up, but the backers of Tulsa's effort to get the facility don't buy any of that.

They've quickly deployed websites, a Facebook campaign, and Twitter hashtags, often leaning on edgy, youth-oriented, and progressive themes designed to appeal to Musk's well-known proclivities for plain language and political bluntness.

Early efforts to create buzz have also included using office windows in downtown buildings to spell out “T4T” at night, and people gathering at Skelly Stadium (under social distancing rules) to spell out “Tulsa 4 Tesla” with their bodies.

Perhaps the most controversial move has been to paint the Tesla logo on the chest of the Golden Driller at Expo Square.

The famous statue now also sports a Tesla belt buckle; moreover, Elon Musk's image was applied to the driller's face, using technology similar to that used for vehicle wraps.

Some find it ironic that an icon of the petroleum industry has been used to lure a maker of electric cars to city once dubbed the “Oil Capital of the World.”

Others say Tulsa helped lead the transition from literal horse power to the internal combustion engine a century ago, and now it's poised to ride the wave of the technology many believe will some day replace fossil fuels.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, Tesla, and its fiery CEO, had not commented directly on Tulsa's campaign.