Amazon's Super Bowl ad shows why Alexa shouldn't be on everything
You might recall last year's Super Bowl ad for Amazon that showed company founder, CEO, and richest man in the world Jeff Bezos perplexed after virtual assistant Alexa lost her voice. This was totally fictitious (although Alexa did go down the next month) and Bezos was presented with a number of different celebrity replacements including Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins.
Today, Amazon released its Super Bowl ad for this weekend's big game between the L.A. Rams and the New England Patriots (will head coach Bill Belichick throw around his Surface Pro tablet again?), and once again it revolves around Alexa. An Amazon employee is discussing with another person how Alexa can be found on "a lot of stuff now." But she also lets this guy know that "there are a lot of fails."
And that one line sets up the premise for the spot, which shows Alexa on an electric toothbrush playing a podcast while a man is brushing his teeth. An Alexa powered dog collar converts a dog's barking into orders for dog food, gravy and sausages, and a hot tub with Alexa turns into a synchronized fountain when music is requested. The point of the ad is that Amazon has been putting Alexa on a number of different products besides its Echo smart speakers, just like Google has with Assistant. Of course, the examples in the ad are ludicrous, which is why the spot is titled "Not Everything Makes the Cut."
View the ad, which features cameos from Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker and others, before everyone sees it during the Super Bowl. Simply tap on the video at the top of this article.
Things that are NOT allowed: