New Ford ad takes a swipe at space-obsessed billionaires like Elon Musk

• A new Ford ad seems to criticize the billionaire space race that includes Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
• The spot highlights Ford's workers and its electric-vehicle ambitions.

A new Ford ad airing during this weekend's Kentucky Derby takes a subtle dig at the billionaire space race that includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

"Right now it can seem like the only people who matter are the loudest," the ad, first spotted by Ad Age, says. "Those who want to tear things down, and then fly away on their own personal spaceships when things get hard."

In addition to running Tesla, Ford's biggest competitor in the electric-car space, Musk helms SpaceX, a rocket company that transports astronauts, satellites, and deep-pocketed tourists to space. Musk has said he wants to help humanity colonize Mars.

There's also Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who has flown to the edge of space on a rocket built by his own SpaceX competitor, Blue Origin, and Richard Branson, the mega-rich founder of the Virgin Group, whose Virgin Galactic charges $450,000 to experience a few minutes of weightlessness in suborbital space.

But the most probable target is Musk, whose company is the one that everyone, Ford included, is trying to beat as they shift toward selling electric vehicles. While others spend time and money on things like going to space, Ford is focusing on employing Americans and building cars, the ad implies.

Ford, for its part, says not to read too much into that part of the ad.

"The goal of the ad campaign is to celebrate all workers, beginning with Ford, which employs more hourly workers in the United States and assembles more vehicles in America than any other automaker," a Ford spokesperson said.

The commercial goes on to tout Ford's 182,000-person workforce and its $50 billion commitment to electrifying its vehicles. Ford recently began shipping the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of its popular pickup truck.

Watch the video here: