Tesla vehicles delivered

Between 2015 and 2023, Super Bowl ad costs and Tesla vehicle deliveries both grew, correlating at 0.962 across nine data points. The irony is that Tesla famously does not advertise during the Super Bowl—or anywhere else, until very recently—which means this correlation describes a company growing in perfect lockstep with an advertising medium it refused to use. Tesla grew through word-of-mouth and Elon Musk's personal brand, while the Super Bowl ad grew through the last remaining mass-audience television event. Both got more expensive; neither needed the other.

Super Bowl ad costs rose from roughly $4.5 million to $7 million per spot. Tesla deliveries grew from about 50,000 to over 1.8 million annually. Both are growth stories across nine years driven by separate market dynamics.

A company that doesn't advertise and an advertising medium that gets more expensive will correlate when both grow during the same period. The r-value doesn't know that Tesla skipped the Super Bowl.