South Korean carmaker Kia said on Tuesday that it had not approved an advertising campaign that featured one of its electric vehicles with a bumper sticker denigrating rival Tesla owner Elon Musk.
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The advertisement, posted last month on the social media accounts of Kia Norway, features the company’s entry level electric car, the EV3, with a bumper sticker saying: “I bought this after Elon went crazy.”
The sticker appears to riff on a viral trend of Tesla owners, unhappy with the world’s richest man’s recent foray into politics, slapping bumper stickers on their vehicles claiming they had bought them “before Musk went crazy”.
The advert was removed on Tuesday after the South Korean company was asked about the image.
“Kia Corporation is aware of a social media post by Kia Norway, which has since been removed,” the company said in a statement.
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“The post was an entirely independent local initiative that does not reflect the position of Kia Europe or Kia Corporation.”