David Bridges
Elon Musk proved once again that he can sell his fans pretty much anything.
The multi-billionaire made his first foray into the beauty industry this week with the debut of his new fragrance “Burnt Hair.” The “perfume salesman”’s new “omnigender” cologne released via his Boring Company is described as both “the essence of repugnant desire” and the “finest fragrance on earth.” It’s currently being sold for $100 a bottle on the company’s website and promises to ship in 2023. On Twitter, Musk joked that his entry into this new market was always bound to happen given the scent-based pun contained within his surname. He wrote, “With a name like mine, getting into the fragrance business was inevitable – why did I even fight it for so long!?” He also changed his Twitter bio to reflect his new job title.
But perhaps even more surprising than this new business venture is just how popular it is. According to Musk, they’ve already sold 20,000 bottles within the first twenty-four hours, meaning he’s already raked in two million dollars for the perfume without anyone ever getting a whiff. The Tesla CEO also encouraged his followers to purchase even more of the product, tweeting, “Please buy my perfume, so I can buy Twitter.” Musk is, of course, referring to the $40 billion bid he launched in April to purchase the social media platform, offering to pay $54.20 per share — or half a bottle of Burnt Hair — for one hundred percent ownership of the company, according to an SEC filing.
This isn’t the first time the tech executive has convinced his supporters to buy a very weird product in order to support him. Back in July 2020, Musk dipped his toe into fashion design, selling a pair of short-shorts with the word “S3XY” printed across the rear. He announced via Twitter that “Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim,” adding in a second tweet, “Will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult times.” He followed that up with a profane reinterpretation of the agency’s initials, writing, “SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s.” The booty shorts were originally intended to just be a joke at the expense of short sellers and the SEC in response to Tesla’s stock hitting a new record high, but wound up becoming an instant best seller. A few minutes after the shorts went on sale on the company’s website for $69.42, Musk tweeted, “Dang, we broke the website.”
