Sunday, February 4, 2018

Alexa Lost Her Voice

The Super Bowl commercials always provide their audience with a laugh or two, while also making them memorable for the remainder of the year. This particular ad I saw before the Super Bowl, during some YouTube browsing, and I was intrigued by the potential loss of an, up-and-coming, iconic voice of our generation.

The following advertisement is for Alexa, the Amazon equivalent of Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana.


With familiar pop culture names such as Gordon Ramsey and Cardi B, the advertisement had enough content to reach to all kinds of audiences enjoying the Super Bowl. It was fun, relatable, and most importantly memorable. Was the clever "loss of voice" just a goofy ploy to gain attention or increase sales of the Dot or Echo? Brian Heater, a blogger from TechCruch.com, thinks otherwise. He speculates this commercial might be a lead into something else in this article. In short, his article ponders the familiar blue-ringed headsets used by the celebrity cast of the commercial and the potential for new versions of Alexa's voice. Unfortunately, he clears up that the company had denied these claims.

Based on the money spent on Super Bowl ads, it is surprising to see this commercial released just for a goofy reminder that Amazon Alexa exists. Yet, Amazon is large enough to spend a pretty penny on a fun commercial and they couldn't have picked a better outlet to send their reminder. It will be interesting to see what happens to Amazon's Alexa, Dot, and Echo interest trends, and sales, change over the course of the year; hopefully to get that positive payoff Amazon was looking for with their expensive investment.

What was your favorite Super Bowl ad of this year? 

1 comment:

  1. The Super Bowl commercials are honestly what I look forward to about the big game every year. Although I personally believe they have been getting less and less creative and memorable, Amazon's, Alexa Lost her Voice commercial was one of my favorites from this year. I found the points you brought up rather interesting. It seems the company spent a massive amount of money for an all-star cast and prime time spot just to remind viewers Alexa still exists. I would be extremely interested to see the effectiveness results of the ad over the year. Regardless, at the very least this commercial will be held as extremely memorable to the members of our generation.

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