Amazon pokes fun at 'fake news' in Super Bowl ad about life without Alexa

Amazon released its Super Bowl ad, starring Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, and it imagines a world before Alexa, the voice-activated assistant. The humorous spot is set to run in the third quarter on Sunday, and it is 90 seconds long. The ad begins with DeGeneres wondering what life would be like without the always-on Alexa available performing routine tasks. That’s when the commercial takes a trip back in time. The ad steps back in time, from Victorian England, the Elizabethan times, the Old West and the Middle Ages all the way up to the Nixon era. The joke about Nixon is that his assistant does not erase his tapes. Get it? His presidency was tarnished when hours of recordings from his White House emerged. Amazon has faced privacy concerns with Alexa, which is able to record people in the intimacy of their homes. That’s why last year, Amazon introduced a way for users to command Alexa to erase recordings, which Nixon could surely have used. It seems Amazon wasn’t shy about hot-button political topics, either. In another gag, the commercial makes fun of “fake news” in history, presumably offering Alexa as an alternative for reliable information. Droga5 and Amazon worked together on the spot, an Amazon spokeswoman says. The commercial was first teased last week. Last year, Amazon was in the Super Bowl with a 90-second spot for Alexa, and it had a more futuristic theme. In that ad, Amazon wondered what wacky technology Alexa would get into in the future. On Sunday, Amazon hopes to encourage discussion around the ad with the hashtag “BeforeAlexa.”

Amazon pokes fun at 'fake news' in Super Bowl ad about life without Alexa

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