It's not really semantics. They really are somewhat different things. Or more specifically it's just not accurate to lump them together as the same thing.

Advertising is a type of marketing, but not all marketing is advertising. If that makes sense. That's the difference. That's why saying "Tesla markets but doesn't advertise" is accurate. Tesla does word of mouth marketing and publicity stunts (guerrilla marketing) and Youtube videos and all that other stuff, but they've never done traditional advertising/advertisements in the form of paid tv ads or billboards and such that the rest of the industry relies on.

Definitely still brilliant though.