Amazon's fun advertising at the Super Bowl only highlights the limits of Alexa



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The average cost of running a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl this weekend is $ 5.5 million. The 90-second ad of Amazon created specifically for the event this year will therefore have cost nothing to the company, even though the sprawling empire of CEO Jeff Bezos considers that such sums are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

titled is not everything, it is really fun (you can and should look at the whole spot below), which is all the more commendable if you consider that this has been created in part by Amazon's creative house team works alongside London-based advertising agency Lucky Generals, the group's award-winning band TBWA UK, which is also responsible for the Yorkshire Tea commercials where the Kaiser Chiefs reach the maximum of sales.

In reality, this advertisement, although very well written and well executed, sees Amazon rather hinting at what Alexa might be able to do, rather than sticking to the experience of 39, interacting with one of his Echo devices. . The key here is that these fantastic abilities displayed in the advertisement are dressed as "fail" and clbadified as "intentional exaggeration". Nevertheless, the underlying impression, given that the spot cloudy water by starting with an Alexa device that you can now buy, the microwave, is one of the all-powerful powers of the voice badistant of Amazon.


Amazon's latest television advertisement for Alexa shows Digital Assistant installed in a space station orbiting Earth

Amazon

Advertising opens and shows Alexa embedded in an oven microwave. "We put it in a lot of things now," said one employee. "But believe me, there are a lot of failures." These "failures" include Forest Whitaker's dismay with his Alexa electric toothbrush; a hot tub powered by Alexa used by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson; Harrison Ford's dog ordering his own pet food thanks to Alexa who was able to translate his barking; and finally an "incident" aboard a space station equipped with Alexa where the digital badistant accidentally turns on and off the power of the entire Earth.

What's great here is that Amazon skillfully shows that he knows all too well that Alexa's does not do it. The hordes of product manufacturers at recent CES trade shows do not necessarily make them forget their nature. But concerning the prodigious power of Alexa exposed in All does not make the cup Matt Wilson, spokesperson of the Advertising Standards Authority, emphasizes that, thanks to the jovial nature of the film, the public is not confused in any way, and therefore the advertisement does not violate any regulation, even if it was to be broadcast here in the UK.

"It's a light heart.It's the exit clause.Advertising allows intentional exaggeration," Wilson said. "You'd be hard-pressed to find anything in this film that would make the average UK consumer flummox.After all, pleasure is still allowed in advertising countries."

This is the fourth consecutive spot in the Super Bowl of Amazon for the promotion of his digital badistant, and the reason for the bizarre capabilities of Alexa presented this year may well be that the company has already explained what an Echo could do before. Alec Baldwin was commissioned to order a batch of pecorino cheeses in the 2016 ad. In 2017, three 10-second messages explained how to use Alexa to play a song, order a pizza, and then, perhaps signaling the upcoming strategy, have Doritos delivered with Prime Air. This latest advertisement included a warning on the screen, "Prime Air is not available in some states (nor in any other) yet." This is still not. On the other hand, in its television commercial, Apple is stubbornly trying to show viewers what its devices are capable of and nothing more. It's simple and clear, though it's now obvious and a little boring.


Apple's TV commercials for its products, such as this campaign for iPad, usually stand for demonstrations of what devices can actually do

Apple

Bezos order him – even appeared in the advertisement of the Super Bowl of 2018, of a duration of 90 seconds, in which Alexa "lost her voice". The Emmy nominated film brings Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B. Rebel Wilson and Sir Anthony Hopkins are trying to replace the badistant while Alexa is recovering.

Which brings us to this year and Alexa acting as a universal translator for Han Solo's dog. It seems that the best solution for Amazon and Lucky Generals is to get even crazier with future applications because the pace of change with Alexa and all digital badistants is sometimes extremely slow. Here are some of the new skills promoted by Amazon for Alexa at the end of last week: "Alexa, tell me a joke on the snow." "Alexa, what is Brexit?" and "Alexa, tell me about Michael Bublé".


Everything does not make the cup also features an imaginary hot tub powered by Alexa with Bellagio-style water fountains

Amazon

Now, in fact, there are examples What's fascinating about what Alexa will be able to do when the connected home takes off, which seems more and more likely now that companies such as IKEA are developing their product offerings. Take the bathroom connected, including an Alexa controlled toilet that will preheat your seat and play music during your ablute. Or, if you want to be more conventional, the TV package now has a digital badistant capability. Google's voice control system is already built into LG TVs. However, the OLED and LCD 2019 models also offer Alexa when you long press the Amazon Prime Video button.

Then comes the Zigbee protocol for IOT, becoming more popular, which could spell the end of the companies who shout that their language for connected devices is better than everyone else's and who's 39, then used to justify not playing with other brands. , currently one of the major flaws of the smart home kit. And on top of all this, there is the increasing sophistication of apps and features such as Apple shortcuts and the ability to create groups in the Alexa app just by voice.

There are actually a lot of things that excite you for the progress made in Alexa and PDAs in general, but we can not possibly blame Amazon for looking to the future for options more entertaining. After all, watching Jeff Bezos dump at a connected khazi party is not the best way to get people's attention. Once Again …

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