Elon Musk Marijuana Joint Stock Plunge Controversy

The crisis was caused by Elon musk smoking a marijuana and tobacco infused joint and sipping whiskey during an interview with TV and Internet personality Joe Rogan. In a lapse of judgment, Musk decided that because it was legal to consume this marijuana and tobacco infused joints in the state of California, there would be no negative repercussions for his actions. He was very wrong (Loft, 2018).

Once the interview was recorded and released on YouTube, it garnered millions of views and became a viral sensation. The interview also attract attention from mainstream traditional news outlets such as CNBC FOXNews and NBC. Stories by these news outlets characterize the interview as oddly personal and highlight the negative aspect of the share price drop (Castillo, 2018).

The primary factor that contributed to the crisis was the resignation of multiple Tesla top executives in reaction to the massive amount of public attention and negative impression resulting from Elon Musk’s interview with the Joe Rogan (NBC, 2018).

Another major negative factor was the fact that major new news outlets such as CNBC characterize the interview in and extremely negative light. One article in particular pointed out that Musk’s conduct during the interview may have violated his own company policy and therefore could warrant serious damage to his reputation and career (Castillo, 2018).

The company did not react very quickly at all. Their reaction to the crisis was virtually nonexistent. Instead, the public interpretation was largely dictated by traditional news sources that focus on the resignation of top executives and the stock price drop resulting from Musk’s smoking a marijuana joint.

The crisis was not properly managed because power over the narrative was given over to the media, rather than maintained in the hands of the company’s PR department and the top executive, Elon Musk. During the interview, Musk immediately becomes extremely nervous because he realizes that his actions would spur a massive wave of criticism that could possibly result in financial ruins for his company. It is very clearly written on his face that he is worried about the impending plunge of his stock prices, so he in attempts to save his reputation by saying that the marijuana did not even affect him and that he rarely smoked marijuana at all. This is attempt to cover up his mistake was very clearly ineffective, as evidenced by the existence of major news articles that show his behavior violated his own company’s business policy (Castillo, 2018).

The most effective change of action would have been to avoid smoking the marijuana joint and doing the extremely casual interview altogether. The financial damage that resulted from the interview was not worth the momentary fun. Musk would have been wise to politely refuse the joint.

Public figure should understand that there is a line between what should and should not be expressed to the public. In this case, Musk would have been better off to keep his behavior to a more private level and not risk taking a financial hit to his company due to widespread misinterpretation of his actions.

Works Cited

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