Ah, the Super Bowl. That magical time of year we gather around the T.V. set and pay just as much attention to the ads that run between plays. Increasingly, though, you can get much of that precious advertising viewing experience out of the way before the big game even starts.
After offering a brief online tease for its upcoming ad, Amazon’s gone ahead and posted all 90 seconds of “Alexa Loses Her Voice.” It’s a goofy, star-studded affair, featuring some Oscar caliber acting from a concerned Jeff Bezos and a cross-discipline collection folks including Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins stepping in for Amazon’s voice assistant.
Things don’t go great, and hilarity, naturally, ensues.
But is there deeper meaning behind the spot? After all, with prices reportedly running north of $5 million per 30 seconds, is Amazon hinting at something bigger, or simply finding a way to get the Echo Spot in front of a lot more American eyeballs, with help from Hannibal Lecter?
Is there anything to those glowing blue Echo headset supported by the cast? After all, Amazon has filed patents for Alexa-enabled headphones. The company also recently announced a mobile accessory development kit back at CES, aimed at bringing the tech to wearables like headphones and smartwatches.
The company already shot that theory down. Turns out those are just a fun prop. What about customizable voices for the smart assistant? Wouldn’t that be cool? The end of the spot appears to put an end to that theory, with Alexa promising to “take it from here.”
Alexa’s been getting a lot more regional accents of late, as the Echo has entered new markets. But the smart assistant’s U.S. voice does seem due for an upgrade akin to the one Siri got late last year as part of iOS 11.
Or maybe it’s just a goofy commercial and we’ve been thinking entirely too much about the whole thing.