Technology is a beautiful thing – or IS it? Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson love their life with Amazon’s Alexa but find that things go awry when their device becomes telepathic – and starts spilling secrets!
“Hey, babe. Check this out,” Colin Jost tells Scarlett Johansson at the start of Amazon’s Alexa commercial for Super Bowl LVI. Colin gives the word – “Alexa, it’s Game Day” – and the Amazon Echo Dot begins implementing a series of commands. “Streaming football on Prime Video. Closing blinds. Chilling rosé,” says Alexa. “Rosé?” asks Scarlett. “Well, it’s an afternoon game,” says Colin, which has Scarlett remark that their Alexa device could “read your mind.” Enter a Black Mirror episode by way of Saturday Night Live, as Colin and Scarlett imagine a world where their Amazon device could scan their thoughts.
Things quickly go wrong. After a yawning Scarlett turns to Colin in bed, Alexa announces she’s “ordering fresh mint mouthwash. Extra strength.” While in the kitchen, Colin begins talking about getting a spray tan before going into his daily schedule, which prompts Alexa to start running the blender to drown him out. Things get worse from there, with Alexa putting in a reminder for Colin to “Fake My Own Death” on the day of Scarlett’s one-person play and playing Fleetwood Mac’s “Tell Me Lies” after the Avengers star tells Colin that having love scenes with hot guys are “the worst.”
It all comes down to a disastrous dinner with friends, with the jilted lovers using their Alexa to embarrass each other…and nearly poison their dinner guests? “It’s probably better Alexa can’t read your mind,” says Colin, after considering this horrible, horrible future. “Bad idea,” agrees Scarlett, before joining her husband on the couch to watch the Big Game.
While Alexa reading minds is science fiction, the commercial – created by Lucky Generals, the agency behind last year’s Emmy-winning Michael B. Jordan spot — shows what households can do when outfitted with Amazon products like the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4k, the Amazon Fire TV, the Amazon Fire TV Cube, and the Amazon Echo Show smart displays. The commercial also reminds viewers that Amazon Prime will be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football for the 2022-23 season.
Amazon has also programmed Alexa with a few commands for the upcoming Big Game. “For game-day predictions, ask, ‘Alexa, who’s going to win the Big Game?’” the company wrote on a related blog post. “For the perfect game-day guacamole, say, ‘Alexa, add avocados to my shopping list,’ or ask, ‘Alexa, how do I make guacamole?’ For more game-day fun, say, “Alexa, tell me a football joke,” or, ‘Alexa, announce a touchdown.’ ”
