'Back to the Future' Day: Hoverboards Are Real

Maybe Universal didn’t get the memo that Lexus already created a hoverboard, but the Back to the Future Day promotional tour has to keep on rolling. In honor of the 30th anniversary blu-ray set of director Robert Zemeckis’ time travel comedy the studio previously released a fake trailer for Jaws 19, and now they’re back with a fake commercial for the infamous hoverboard seen in Part II.

It’s a snappy bit of marketing, lampooning the overly hyper teen-focused commercials seen on channels like MTV and Nickelodeon all the time. You get the sense that Universal could slip this in the middle of afternoon programming and kids wouldn’t know that it was fake. Kudos to the dreadlocked skater dude in the clip for committing to the bit. The “air’s no longer for just breathing, bruh” line is particularly great.

Kudos also to Universal for finally jumping on the fake hoverboard bandwagon. Unfortunately they’re not the first and this clip isn’t the funniest viral marketing out there.

A few years ago Funny or Die created some small buzz by touting a company called HUVr that allegedly created an actual hoverboard. They even got Christopher Lloyd to be in on the joke among a few other random celebrities like Moby, Terrell Owens, and Tony Hawk.

While they couldn’t even get Christopher Lloyd, at least Universal is making the effort to celebrate Back to the Future in some interesting ways. Who knows what else they have in store before the big day on October 21.