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Before Alexa
Amazon, in a tradition that’s now in its sixth year, released a series of commercials for the Super Bowl. Check it out here:
In the tradition of big names, Ellen DeGeneres and spouse Portia de Rossi ask what life was like before Alexa. It’s clever, going through different scenarios in history with people named proximally to Alexa.
There are two voices that I can hear in my head. The first is one that follows the question and thinks about the answer logically. It admires how quickly voice interaction has taken off and how music interaction, even if it’s listening to someone blowing over the jug, is a much more magical experience than looking for a song or clicking next or trying to find something in a playlist. Voice interaction is everywhere and it’s getting better every month.
The other voice in my head sounds like Gilbert Gottfried. It yells that before Alexa…
“THERE WAS THE UBI!!!!”
That’s what people did. They bought the Ubi. Now if only we had Amazon’s marketing dollars for Super Bowl ads…
The first Super Bowl ad for the Echo was with Alec Baldwin and Missy Elliott in 2016. Google started its own ad campaign. For some reason, the Google Home release didn’t bother me as much.
Thanks for being my therapist today!
