There’s a new pathway to a career at Tesla. All it takes is some wit, control over an obscure museum’s social-media feed, and a picture of a really, really big ram.
In 2018, a British man working at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading, UK, composed a viral tweet that included an archival image of a Exmoor Horn aged ram with the caption, “Look at this absolute unit.”
The tweet prompted a bizarre exchange months later with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, after he inexplicably changed his profile image to that of the museum’s ram. The museum’s @theMERL Twitter account responded by changing its name to the Muskeum of Elonglish Rural Life and swapping out its profile picture for one of Musk. Now, the museum worker responsible for the sheep meme, Adam Koszary, has been hired by Tesla as a social media manager.
But while Tesla gained a meme-worthy social media manager, the Royal Academy of Arts lost one. Koszary had been hired by the institution, but Tesla poached him before he could even start.
This isn’t the first time the @theMERL Twitter account has gotten attention. Earlier this year it gained fame by engaging in a fowl war with other museums over which has the best duck. Starting with a prompt to the British Museum, the thread ultimately engaged in duck boasting with the Natural History Museum, the British Library, and even the Louvre.
While Koszary’s social media antics landed him a job at Tesla, Musk’s haven’t always brought him fortune. Last year he was sued by the SEC after violating security laws by tweeting that he would take Tesla private. He now receives pre-approval for posts about certain topics related to the business.