Amazon's Super Bowl ad reveals the same old Alexa ahead of Apple's HomePod
After a teaser suggested new voice options could be coming to Alexa, the release of Amazon's full Super Bowl spot reveals it was all just a joke, setting up a primetime ad where celebrities substitute in for Alexa -- and poorly.
The 90-second ad, posted to YouTube on Wednesday, features Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins, all standing in as replacements for Alexa after the personal assistant "lost her voice." The celebrities don't quite perform what Echo users ask of them, however, denying their requests to humorous effect.
The spot ends with the classic Alexa voice announcing, "Thanks guys, but I'll take it from here," making it clear that the voice driven personal assistant remains the same as before.
Earlier this week, Amazon posted a 30-second teaser for the Super Bowl ad, suggesting that multiple replacement voices were coming to Alexa after losing her voice. While the teaser implied Alexa could be gaining new voices, the final ad shows it was just the setup for a cameo-filled laugh.
The ad will air on national TV during Super Bowl LII, set to take place this Sunday between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots.
Just a few days later, on Feb. 9, Apple will launch HomePod, a premium, music-focused speaker that also integrates its own voice-driven assistant, Siri.
HomePod has drawn inevitable comparisons to Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo lineup, though Apple's offering is more focused on high quality audio playback.
The 90-second ad, posted to YouTube on Wednesday, features Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins, all standing in as replacements for Alexa after the personal assistant "lost her voice." The celebrities don't quite perform what Echo users ask of them, however, denying their requests to humorous effect.
The spot ends with the classic Alexa voice announcing, "Thanks guys, but I'll take it from here," making it clear that the voice driven personal assistant remains the same as before.
Earlier this week, Amazon posted a 30-second teaser for the Super Bowl ad, suggesting that multiple replacement voices were coming to Alexa after losing her voice. While the teaser implied Alexa could be gaining new voices, the final ad shows it was just the setup for a cameo-filled laugh.
The ad will air on national TV during Super Bowl LII, set to take place this Sunday between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots.
Just a few days later, on Feb. 9, Apple will launch HomePod, a premium, music-focused speaker that also integrates its own voice-driven assistant, Siri.
HomePod has drawn inevitable comparisons to Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo lineup, though Apple's offering is more focused on high quality audio playback.
Comments
US ≠ world
A.
2) This is a US run company. You just gotta deal with it, just as I have to deal with BBC shows not playing in the US. Solution: Get a VPN for when you run into issues.
3) There's no need for a signature when every post has your username attached.
The ad was creepy, all the way to the end!
Microsoft US
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Amazon US
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Twitter US
Netflix US
Disney US
Paramount US
Comcast (NBC/Universal) US
AT&T (soon to own Time-Warner to include HBO, CNN and others) US
Intel US
AMD US
H-P US
Dell US
Do you notice a trend?
At least the add is funny, though suggesting your product has malfunctions is not very smart.
Having said that, are their real people would would ask their smart home to "set the mood" and expect something good to happen?
Siri, especially on the Apple Watch, when you can just lift your wrist and issue a command is the greatest thing!!! Because it works EVERYWHERE. Every room in my house. In my garage. In my front yard and back yard. Away from my house. Many places these speakers, including the HomePod are locked into a room by a power cord. On the other hand, your own family can use them. So you litter your house with theses things, and then voice control your inside lights and adjust the temp, etc. Mood Lighting, no problem.
I do think Google's Assistant has the edge over Siri. For most things they are in fact pretty equal. Both are better then Alexa in most things also. Alexa does have a ton of Skills, most of which you'll never activate and use. You have to be exactly right in how you word something for it to work otherwise it's clueless. I like of look at it as what Apple's App store was early on, where it was a bunch of worthless fart apps. I also don't like that you have to ASK it or TELL it to do something and with what device, where Google and Siri are smart enough to know what I'm talking about.
This is why I'm playing around with all 3 of them. They all have their Pros and Cons. The Plus with the Amazon Dot is that since I'm a long time PRIME member, I get access to a lot of music without having to pay for a Music Service also. Last month in December, when I setup the Google Mini, which I have to say really doesn't sound that bad, and in fact sounds better then the Amazon Dot, music is just BAD on it. I had setup Pandora on the Google Mini and when I asked it to play some Music, "Hey Google, Play some Bing Crosby Christmas Music" it started to play just that, from Pandora. Didn't cost me a penny. I have free Pandora service currently. That was nice. I tried it again this month and it no longer works. Without paying for Spotify, that doesn't work by voice on Google's Mini using the free service. I havn't gotten around to setting up the Skills for Spotify and Pandora on Alexa yet, as I said, the Dot does sound like crap!!! It's OK for talk, but Music, no thanks.
I'd lay back on my Bed and ask questions to Siri to my new 12.9" iPad Pro. Then to Google Mini, and than to Amazon Echo Dot. It's something I like to play around with. How do the answers compare to the question I asked. Pretty similar. What am I going to get for news or weather when I ask. Where's that data coming from? Can I change it? For example, google was pretty easy to swap to the news service I wanted over the default.
2) Not all ads are about directly selling a product. Often they're about awareness, which includes reminders even though you haven't forgotten about them. This is why you see ads for Coke everywhere despite no one forgetting that Coke actually exists. We're seeing the awareness ads with the new HomePod teasers just as we saw with the Academy Awards "Hello?" ad for the original iPhone that didn't show the device in use but referenced over a dozen old-style phones. Those Apple ads were about generating buzz for a yet unreleased product so the focus was piquing your interest. Later on they'll show you the devices being used, and then after that they'll get a little more meta or funny, like this Alexa ad. Remember the "Mac v PC" ads? I'm glad I never had to unbox Justin Long.
At least that's what I think Amazon is trying to say— 'you can depend on Alexa'. I use both Alexa and Siri. I don't think using only either would work for me. The HomePod will give Siri an edge I want, but not replace Alexa.