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On May 28, 2025, Tesla finally gave the second-generation Roadster the kind of public moment Musk promised years ago: a burst of thrusters, a brief airborne spin, and clips that spread across social media in minutes. Within hours, brands were not merely watching — they were selectively rewriting the scene with their own products as the hero.
The Roadster has been a talking point since its 2017 reveal, and the latest demo rekindled the same mix of awe and skepticism. For marketers, though, the video was less about automotive performance and more about timing. Each brand had to decide: lean into the fantasy of flight, or double down on being grounded? The responses split neatly into both camps.
Volvo chose the latter. The Swedish automaker posted an image of one of its cars with the line "Down to Earth. Since 1927." The caption went further: "Since 1927, we've kept all four wheels on the ground." No apology, no parody — just a straight line that leans into the durability and reliability baked into Volvo's DNA.
It's an effective move because it doesn't mock Tesla. Instead, it repositions Volvo as the sensible counterweight to a rocket-car fantasy. In a moment of meteoric hype, Volvo would rather be the anorak than the spacesuit.
MINI went back to the archives, sharing a black-and-white photograph of an early model already off the ground. The tagline: "Flying solo since 1959. Nice to have company."
The jab is gentle but pointed. MINI has been building small, nimble cars for over six decades; a little airborne moment doesn't scare them. The vintage photo also works aesthetically — it implies the flying-car era is not new, just restyled.
Axe brought a product-relevance angle. In an Instagram post, the brand teased "the secret behind the world's first flying car." The reveal: several Axe products strapped to the underside of a vehicle, doing their best impression of afterburners. "The first flying, and the best smelling, car in the world," Axe wrote.
It's absurd in exactly the right way. Axe knew it had nothing to add to the auto-engineering conversation, so it skipped pretending and went straight to personal care that happens to propel a car. The result feels less like a follower and more like a sidekick.
Hot Wheels kept its response nearly wordless. The toy brand shared an image of one of its miniature cars flying off a track, with the caption "We've been doing this since 1968." In one line, Hot Wheels undercut the novelty of Tesla's display and gave a sly nod to childhood memories.
The reply is a masterclass in using brand heritage as a punchline. No product mock-up, no satire — just a fact.
Razer took the flying car from the road to the desktop. The gaming brand posted a video of one of its mice attempting the same airborne maneuver, with the caption "Razer Project McFly V2??" It's a callback to Back to the Future and a playful promise that its mice are ready to lift off.
For a hardware brand, turning a silicone mouse into a rocket-propelled vehicle is not just funny — it's on-brand. Razer's audience lives for sci-fi references, and this one hit the right key.
Toblerone chose a travel-adjacent angle. The chocolate brand posted a simple question: "Do flying cars stop at duty free?" It's a subtle reminder that its chocolate is a staple of airport shopping, and a way to stay in the conversation without pretending to understand thrusters.
As an airline, Fly Norwegian had the easiest entry: it's already in the sky. The brand shared an image of an aircraft with thrusters attached to the underside, joking, "Oops, admin forgot we can already fly. But ours has toilets."
That last clause is the kind of brand personality that gets shared — not because it's competitive, but because it's true. Anyone who has spent hours crammed into a middle seat will appreciate the essential comfort.
Across the Pacific, several Malaysian brands turned the flying car into a local meme. Hot FM shared a video of a red car speeding down a runway and lifting off, claiming it had already seen one at Dataran — a joke that grounds the Tesla moment in familiar territory. Beautea Malaysia sent one of its products down the same runway, complete with a smooth landing, as if part of a product commercial. Carsome Malaysia hopped in with an animated clip of a yellow car attempting take-off, while the admin pleaded for support and noted that flying cars aren't on the lot yet — "but we have plenty that can handle the slightly less ambitious journeys to work, home, or a weekend drive." Watsons Malaysia went full retail fantasy, showing a store flipped upside down at the end of a runway, with a question about whether customers would use a drive-through click-and-collect service.
These responses demonstrate something social teams often forget: localizing an international trend can make it feel more intimate. The flying car may be a Tesla showpiece, but in these hands, it becomes a prop for navigating daily life — traffic, errands, weekend getaways.
The best replies here share a common trait: they don't overreach. Axe doesn't claim to know rocket science; it claims to make cars smell better. Volvo doesn't mock flight; it values gravity. Razer doesn't try to compete with carmakers; it brings the conversation to a mousepad.
Marketing tacticians often cite Oreo's "You can still dunk in the dark" Super Bowl tweet as the gold standard for real-time marketing. Tesla's flying-car moment gave brands more than a one-line window, though. It gave them a visual, a metaphor, and a public dare. Some responses, like Volvo's and Hot Wheels', will age as well as the cars they describe. Others may be forgotten by the next launch cycle.
As of May 28, 2025, Tesla has not announced a firm production date or confirmed final pricing beyond the "coming soon" status that has been attached to the Roadster for years. Musk has long promised blistering performance and an optional SpaceX thruster package, but the company remains silent on delivery timelines. The flying demo, then, is a spectacle of what could be — and a predictable excuse for brands to have some fun in the meanwhile.
