How Mark Zuckerberg won the PR war against Elon Musk with his brilliant image cleanse | Trending

Besides being CEOs of rival social media companies, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are also fighting a war on a different front: that of their public image. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) and X owner Elon Musk (R) Elon Musk – once hailed as a great visionary and tech genius – is now a controversial figure at best. using his social media platform X to amplify his own right-wing philosophy, his series of transphobic tweets, his mass layoffs, various lawsuits and assorted other controversies, Elon Musk is taking the “eccentric” in eccentric billionaire a bit too literally for everyone’s liking. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg, who started this image race on a definite back foot, has managed to enact a PR cleanse of stunning proportions in the space of a few short years, going from “scrawny hacker” to strapped CEO. Mark Zuckerberg’s transformation was hailed as an example of brilliant PR the co-founder of brand building company Thoughtleadr, Fernando Cao Zheng. In a post shared on X, Zheng broke down how the Meta CEO enacted one of the most impressive image cleanses in recent times. Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover“In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg was one of the most hated CEOs on the planet,” Zheng began his thread. “6 years later, he wears chains, surfs in tuxedos and fights Lex Fridman. Everyone seems to love him.” He called it “the most brilliant PR transformation of the century.” Zheng began with a short overview of the rise and fall of Mark Zuckerberg. After starting Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard, he became a Silicon Valley VIP. But his image of a bold business leader and innovator was damaged after a series of controversies, including Facebook data breaches, privacy issues, the Russian 2016 election row, Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Congressional hearings where he was likened to a robot and more. Zuckerberg has managed to bounce back and how! Embracing his billions According to Zheng, a large part of the credit for Zuckerberg’s PR makeover goes to his newfound philosophy of embracing his billions. “He’s not pretending to be a normal guy anymore. He’s owning his billionaire status,” the co-founder wrote on X. In the last few months, the CEO of Meta has wakeboarded in a tuxedo, collected designer chains, and trained with MMA fighters. Most recently, he commissioned a 7-foot statue of his wife Priscilla Chan from renowned sculptor Daniel Arsham. All of these things, while not exactly relatable to the common man, at least did elicit a common sentiment – “If we had billions, this is how we would be spending them too,” said social media users. Wardrobe updateThe image makeover went hand and hand with a wardrobe refresh. According to Zheng, Mark Zuckerberg ditched his “Dishwater tees and hoodies” for “Capri cabana shirts and Yeezy-esque sweatshirts.” The 40-year-old tech billionaire has also allowed his hair to “grow out into Gen-Z curls” and taken to interacting with designers in Instagram comments. Zuckerberg started his journey as a “scrawny, awkward hacker” from his college dorm room. Today, he trains is martial arts – “Now, he’s a jacked CEO who fights Lex Fridman & wears chains.” All of this has earned him major brownie points on the internet. “While Elon Musk picks culture war fights on X, Zuck’s projecting a ‘whatever bro, I’m doing me’ vibe. embracing his quirky billionaire status instead of hiding it, Zuck’s become MORE relatable. Now, he’s just spending time with his family & spending his billions as we would,” Zheng concluded. In short, Zuckerberg is the clear winner of this PR war just being normal – or as normal as a billionaire can be.