Ad of the Day: After Alexa loses her voice, Bezos and Amazon enlist celebrity replacements in Super Bowl ad
After a teaser ad where Amazon’s Alexa loses her voice, with an appearance by founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, the story continues by showing Alexa celebrity replacements for the e-commerce giant’s Super Bowl ad.
Amazon Alexa Super Bowl ad with Anthony Hopkins
London agency Lucky Generals created its first ever Super Bowl spot with the star-laden ad – in partnership with D1, Amazon’s in-house creative unit.
The 90-second spot continues by including the teaser, where a woman at home asks Alexa for the weather, but Alexa coughs and dries up. Cut to Amazon HQ, where the urgent news is flooding in and a concerned Bezos is unconvincingly reassured by an aide that the situation is under control and that they have stand-ins at the ready.
Those stand-ins include a star-studded cast – Gordon Ramsay, Rebel Wilson, Cardi B and Sir Anthony Hopkins – trying, and spectacularly failing, to replace Alexa. Ramsay berates a man asking Alexa how to make a grilled cheese while Cardi B wonders why anyone would want to go to Mars after a teen asks how far it is to the planet. Wilson, in a sudsy tub, talks dirty to a man who has asked Alexa to set the mood at his dinner party, and Hopkins, lounging in a yard with peacocks all around, tells a woman who is trying to call her boyfriend that he’s unavailable.
As the camera pulls away from Hopkins, the real Amazon Alexa voice returns, reassuring that she’s back – set to Carly Simon’s Bond theme, ‘Nobody does it better’. While there is no reason given for Alexa’s laryngitis, it’s a good vehicle for what was no doubt an expensive celebrity outing.
Michael Boychuk, Amazon executive creative director, said: “We’re always trying to innovate on behalf of our customers and even though I think we’ve proved conclusively that nobody could ever replace Alexa, we hope that viewers have as much fun watching this, as we had making it.”
Danny Brooke-Taylor, executive creative director and founder of Lucky Generals commented: “The Super Bowl is advertising’s noisiest day of the year, so it takes a brave client to lose its most iconic voice. Massive props to the entire team at Amazon for their unwavering desire to create something brilliant.”
The spot will run during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LII on Sunday, February 4. The Amazon Alexa Super Bowl campaign will continue with supporting 30-second spots featuring Leslie Jones, JB Smoove and Rebel Wilson.
