Neil Hughes
After a teaser suggested new voice options could be coming to Alexa, the release of Amazon's full Super Bowl spot reveals it was all just a joke, setting up a primetime ad where celebrities substitute in for Alexa — and poorly.
The 90-second ad, posted to YouTube on Wednesday, features Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins, all standing in as replacements for Alexa after the personal assistant "lost her voice." The celebrities don't quite perform what Echo users ask of them, however, denying their requests to humorous effect.
The spot ends with the classic Alexa voice announcing, "Thanks guys, but I'll take it from here," making it clear that the voice driven personal assistant remains the same as before.
Earlier this week, Amazon posted a 30-second teaser for the Super Bowl ad, suggesting that multiple replacement voices were coming to Alexa after losing her voice. While the teaser implied Alexa could be gaining new voices, the final ad shows it was just the setup for a cameo-filled laugh.
The ad will air on national TV during Super Bowl LII, set to take place this Sunday between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots.
Just a few days later, on Feb. 9, Apple will launch HomePod, a premium, music-focused speaker that also integrates its own voice-driven assistant, Siri.
HomePod has drawn inevitable comparisons to Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo lineup, though Apple's offering is more focused on high quality audio playback.
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22 Comments
Great ad. I was definitely thrown by the teaser ad suggesting that Alexa could lose her voice and the voices were to change—neither of which are good for business.
I like Echo Dot, but who the fck will put that shit on his ear?
Very effective. It uses the gimmick of celebrity voices and humor to get you to the real message: Alexa can handle a wide range of everyday use cases.
Can you please make videos available in all countries?
US ≠ world
A.