This Fan Created Tesla Commercial Is Awesome

A fan created Tesla commercial uploaded by Loren Booker is simply awesome. It features the voice of Carl Sagan narrating his 1980 television show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Cosmos was a thirteen part PBS series that covered a variety of scientific topics. It attempted to demystify them and make the knowledge that was unique to the scientific community at the time understandable to the general population. To this day, Cosmos is one of the most frequently watched programs ever aired on PBS.

The video footage itself comes from a time lapse footage captured by TSO Photography. To get it, he trekked to the top of Spain’s highest mountain, El Teide, elevation 12,000 feet. The artist says, “The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide.” The filming was done between April 4 and April 11, 2011. On April 9,  large sandstorm struck the Sahara Desert.

“Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.”

for this commercial, the videographer blended Sagan’s voice and TSO Photography’s footage to make one of the most powerful fan based Tesla ads ever done. No professional film crew could have done better. Interspersed with the original video are images of Tesla automobiles, SpaceX missions, and a reference to the possibilities waiting to be unlocked by the Hyperloop. All of these achievements owe their genesis to the imagination and determination of Elon Musk.

Why does Elon Musk and Tesla Motors inspire so many people to create graphic presentations to celebrate them? That’s a question that is difficult to answer. Perhaps it because, like Carl Sagan, Musk can look beyond the banal and imagine the possible. There is no question that this is one commercial that would make Don Draper weep with joy.