Alexa, is it warm in here? Amazon Super Bowl ad turns hot ‘Black Panther’ star into an Echo device - GeekWire
The disembodied voice of Amazon's Alexa may have finally found a vessel suitable for helping with recipes, turning on the lawn sprinklers, or reading an audio book in the bathtub. His name is Michael B. Jordan.
Jordan is the red-hot actor perhaps best known for his role as the villain Erik Killmonger in Marvel's "Black Panther." After Super Bowl Sunday, a certain segment of the population might just call him That Amazon Guy.
In a 60-second spot called "Alexa's Body," below, Jordan stars as a daydream version of Alexa's new form factor. The actual device was unveiled last fall during the tech giant's annual Devices & Services event when Amazon showed off spherical versions of the Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers.
In the ad, a woman playing an Amazon employee gushes to co-workers over a round Echo sitting on a table.
"It's just flawless, isn't it?" she says, as she turns and walks toward an office window. "I mean, I literally couldn't imagine a more beautiful vessel for Alexa to be … inside."
Below on the street, she spots Jordan's image in an ad for his upcoming film "Without Remorse" on the side of a bus. Amazon gets two Super Bowl pitches for the price of one by working in the Amazon Studios movie, a Tom Clancy thriller about a U.S. Navy Seal.
At home, the woman's living, breathing Alexa-enabled Michael B. Jordan is put to work like any Amazon smart device. He helps her when she's cooking — even though her husband brought home take-out; he turns on the sprinklers — even though her husband already watered the grass; he reads an audio book to her while she bathes — even though other people in the house need to use the bathroom.
The commercial plays off Jordan's sex appeal with just the right amount of innuendo. The actor even removes his shirt — which he has demonstrated a propensity to do, on multiple occasions, even if it's just to encourage people to vote.
"Who knew Alexa had abs?" Amazon says in the YouTube description for the ad, which was created by teams at Amazon and Lucky Generals. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared the ad on his Instagram and said, "We might have given Alexa a little upgrade."
The NFL said last year that the sport is increasingly attracting more female fans and Super Bowl ads are finally reflecting that demographic change. This is the sixth year Amazon has run a Super Bowl ad, and the company promoted Alexa last year, too, using Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi in a spot that asked what people did before the voice assistant was a thing.
Amazon is also running a Prime Video ad on Sunday promoting "Coming 2 America," the sequel to the Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall film "Coming to America," which premieres on the streaming service March 5.
Super Bowl LV between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers airs Sunday on CBS at 3:30 p.m. PT.
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