Amazon’s steamy Super Bowl ad for Alexa will leave you perplexed, uncomfortable

By Patrick Hearn February 5, 2021

Everyone’s favorite part of the Super Bowl is the commercials. Sure, the hot wings are good, and some people even want to watch football — but everyone else is here for the funny commercials.

Amazon’s new Alexa commercial is certainly interesting, but perhaps funny isn’t the best descriptor. You might try weird. If you wanted to be kind, you could say esoteric. But if you were being truly realistic, the best word is just … why?

The commercial starts off with a woman in examining the new fourth-generation Echo smart speaker and describing it as flawless. She says she can think of nothing more beautiful, but her words trail off as she catches a glimpse of a Michael B. Jordan advertisement out the window.

While the Black Panther actor is certainly in good shape, it’s not clear why he elicits this response. The woman then begins to imagine Jordan in her home, but not as himself — instead, she sees Alexa inside him. His eyes glow with an eerie blue light that has you ready to call Blade Runner‘s Rick Deckard and alert him to the presence of Replicants.

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It just gets stranger from there, resulting in a fantasy of Jordan in the bath telling a story (reading an audiobook) to the woman. The leading lady’s real-world husband shows visible concern at the change that has overtaken his wife, throwing in several thinly veiled innuendoes into the commercial.

The point of any advertisement is to make you think about the product. In fact, marketing psychology suggests you need to be exposed to something six or seven times before you choose to purchase it. This new Alexa commercial certainly makes you think about the smart assistant, but perhaps not in the best light.

It’s not clear what the message is supposed to be. Does Amazon want you to buy an Alexa, or make love to it? If the commercial were an announcement of a new Alexa voice akin to the current Samuel L Jackson option, that would be interesting — but it isn’t. The ad just leaves the viewer wondering whether the scriptwriter sampled a bit too much of the beer intended for their beer-battered Super Bowl onion rings.

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