Ok. So. If you didn’t see this INSANELY GREAT commercial, I suggest you do. Here it is:
And there’s actually another one that’s just as funny:
Amazon did a great job targeting its demographic, especially in the celebrities they chose to be “Alexa’s” voice.
Gordon Ramsay is the chef that tells everyone how awful they are at cooking and calls them names. We love it. On twitter people ask him to rate food they’ve created and he tears them to shreds. Again, we love it.
Cardi B is relevant to us because she is literally everywhere. You can hear her all over the radio and she has a strong social media presence. People definitely know who she is.
Rebel Wilson brings the type of humor that you don’t always see on a T.V. commercial. I personally thought her part was the funniest because it was so unconventional. She fit in perfectly with the other two celebrities selected.
Even the people they chose to be as actors throughout the commercial showed who they were targeting and I liked that they chose an adequate person based on the senario. Chef Gordon for a younger guy needing a recipe, Cardi B for a younger guy who has to know who she is and rebel Wilson for a crowd a little older but her calm voice (I think it’s her accent) really fit the scene.
Amazon did a really great job in creating this commercial. I think its brilliant. Humor is a great way to sell your product.
Izchel Padilla
IMC Hawks Blog 
I completely agree with you, I think Amazon did a great job with this. This commercial was my favorite of the night. I really like that you noted which celebrity hit which age demographic. All the celebrities picked are very popular right now and forward on social networking. I also enjoyed seeing videos that Amazon released before Sunday of just Alexa “coughing” and then finishing the commercial the night of!
This commercial was outstanding and simply genius. Incorporating the array of actors, actresses, and artists really added to the ethos and pathos of the commercial. The entirety of the commercial was entertaining. The creators definitely paid attention to who were the “in” celebrities and used that to their advantage. This more so targeted the younger demographic, but it was still entertaining to all age groups. Fantastic commercial and fantastic article!
Amazon did a great job with this commercial! Its entertaining while also doing what a commercial should do, which is showing off their product. I agree that Amazon did a good job with targeting its demographic and relating it back to celebrities that we are all familiar with.
This ad campaign was one that really stood out to me! I thought it was an extremely unique idea for Amazon to advertise their product. It was done in such a way that it could appeal to several age groups with the variety of celebrities. One way to pull my attention into a commercial and to keep me from thinking: Oh God, another freaking commercial” is clever, witty humor and these commercials nailed it. I was sold when Rebel started setting the mood! XD
Amazon totally hit the mark with this commercial, in my opinion. I agree, the commercial did a great job of pairing each celebrity with a hilarious scenario (my favorite is Sir Anthony Hopkins, with his very eerie, “Westworld”ish response, making the commercial all the more hilarious.) What I really think made this commercial so successful though was that it really brought Alexa to people’s attention. For people who simply don’t have an Alexa, or don’t want an Alexa, it showed the product in a fun light that made us all say “that was really great funny, I’m gonna look it up again,” and thus exposing us to the product even more. Generally, the more exposure to something someone has, the more comfortable they are with it, which is why this commercial was so genius.
I agree that this ad did an amazing job at catching the audiences attention. It had many big celebrities in it, which made it more interesting to watch and it was very humorous. This commercial did a great job at understanding what is popular right now.
This is one of my absolute favorite commercials that has ever been put out. Like you said the audience targeting was perfect, they chose different age groups to target throughout the whole commercial but kept it unified and comical. Amazon clearly put a lot of thought into who to use as celebrity guests, and my favorite had to be Anthony Hopkins, it made for a great cameo. This commercial is marketing genius in my opinion and the proof lies in how many times it has popped up on every social media platform I am on.
I agree with your opinions about three of the four “replacements,” but you forgot to mention Anthony Hopkins. He was the most interesting choice for me, because not many younger people know of him. It was interesting to watch the commercial with my friends, laughing over Rebel and Cardi B, then talking to my father about the same advertisement that he calls “the one with Anthony Hopkins and that mean chef guy.” He has NO IDEA who Cardi B is, but Silence of the Lambs is one of his favorite films. Amazon did a great job of sending the message that they have something for everyone; not only in their massive selection of products, but their many choices of spokespersons.
I must agree that Amazon’s commercial was very effective. Comedy is one thing that I definitely think is important in making an advertisement work. In addition, seeing all the celebrities give the people watching a sense of connection with the commercial and their lives, because they see those celebrities everywhere. Using the techniques of humor and celebrity placement was perfect for making this commercial one of the best I saw during the Super Bowl.
I think this commercial was so memorable this Super Bowl! Using celebrities to advertise a product is the best way to appeal to a broad audience. People often find celebrities relatable, but especially admirable. Due to this simple marketing method, people are much more eager to purchase a product that has been marketed by a celebrity they admire. Additionally, Alexa is a very popular product. So by putting this commercial in the string of the Super Bowl ads, while also having famous celebrities play a role in it, allows the ad to be powerful and engaging and an ad that is recognizable from the others.
Amazon definitely picked 3 celebrities with very different, distinct, unconventional brands. Gordon Ramsay, as you mentioned, has built a humorous brand on being a jerk. Cardi B is everywhere but she has a particular personality–an affected way of speaking, goofy personality, ditziness etc. And Rebel Wilson has an incredible ability to make making people uncomfortable with innuendo funny. In many ways, this ad is built on our desire to laugh at other people “suffering” (if not getting country music played when you want it is “suffering”). A lack of Alexa is causing a disruption in these people’s lives, and as funny as it is, we as viewers are relieved when Alexa “comes back” and the people in the commercial can presumably return to the status quo.
I agree! I think the effectiveness of this commercial is derived from Amazon’s ability to choose new current celebrities, like Cardi B. The commercial was well constructed and they used a good variety of celebrities as well.
This was one of my favorite commercials during the Super Bowl this year. I enjoyed all of the famous people’s mimics of Alexa’s voice. The celebrities used played a huge role in gaining attention from viewers. The underlying message was clear to be that Alexa outperformed all of them which says a lot. Using comedy and ethos methods contributed greatly to viewer response and admiration.
One hundred percent agree with you, I love this commercial. Amazon hit the nail directly on the head when they chose the actors that they did for this commercial, and I also agree with the fact that it was geared toward a Millennial demographic. Gordon Ramsey is relevant to us on Social Media, Rebel Wilson is relevant to us in film, and Cardi B is relevant to us in the music world. This commercial was my absolute favorite during the Super Bowl and you can tell that the advertising department at Amazon really knew what they were doing.
I love Amazon!!!!!!!! I think these commercials add such a funny aspect to Alexa. It freshens up the brand and makes it fun! They especially picked really good actors to portray the brand. Everyone likes a funny bathtub scene! It makes it a commercial everyone can relate too.
I also thought that these were really great commercials. The humor is what made them. It was not boring but rather had a level of entertainment. It was a unique twist to the typical Alexa voice; however, when the normal Alexa voice came on at the end, it signified the value of her voice. It caused me, a listener, to be grateful that Alexa is who she is instead of run by someone else, such as one of these famous celebrities. This promoted their brand really well.
I agree with this post and I believe Amazon did an amazing job with this commercial. From utilizing comedy to hiring relevant celebrities, it was an easy success for them. I thought it was interesting how you talked about the age demographics for each celebrity, as I did not catch that when I watched the commercial myself. Once again, this is an example of how comedy easily attracts the audience attention and how to make good use of celebrities image to sell your product.
Hey Izchel! I completely agree! Amazon projected a humorous example of anthropomorphism which really made the commercial stand out amongst their usual Alexa commercials. They used a wide variety of personalities but it all came together very well and made the finishing product comical yet appropriate for today’s culture. Amazon did a brilliant job.
I loved this commercial. I think Amazon did a great job by incorporating relevant people in their commercial. The humor keeps the audience engaged. I have an Alexa at home and it is always hilarious when Alexa misunderstands my parents so I could relate to the commercial.
Hi Izchel!
I completely agree with you that I think Amazon did a fantastic job capturing it’s audience and target demographics with this commercial. I personally found it very entertaining, which is exactly the outcome they were wanting to achieve. They definitely chose a variety of popular, trendy celebrities to intrigue as much as their target demographics as possible, and to make it “share” worthy. I agree: it was a brilliant commercial!
I definitely agree with you! Amazon always seems to come up with something to keep their name on top. This was a perfect time for this commercial as people are starting to shy away from these electronics due to safety concerns. I believe this will help clear most peoples minds about the issues with this gadget. I also like how they chose the different celebrities. They really seemed to relate to all different age groups.
I absolutely love this commercial. I agree with you, each of the people that they chose to participate in each scenario fit perfectly. I cant think of hardly anybody who would play the parts better. I enjoy that the commercial incorporates all generations. I like the commercial that you added just for humor. I think this was great, and loved reading your analysis!
I thoroughly enjoyed this commercial most of all this year. However, I don’t agree with the Cardi B statement. During the Superbowl, I was at a party with maybe 30 people in attendance and as soon as Cardi B came on, the entire party was immediately turned off. Cardi B is not the best influence on our generation, although she is very known, she’s more known for her foul mouth and immature behavior, rather than a good rapper/singer.
I loved this ad!! I thought Amazon picked the perfect celebrities to voice Alexa in the different scenarios. Gordan Ramsay, Cardi B, and Rebel Wilson are three celebrities that pretty much everyone knows, if you don’t know who they are you have likely heard of them in conversation. A commercial that can make me laugh, as you said, will make me more likely to buy a product because the anthropomorphism has been created.
This ad was amazing, the range of people used formulated the commercial better. The humor involved in each scenario that was played in showed that funny awkwardness that would happen if the voice of Alexa was being portrayed by well known celebrities and also gave the product a better influence on people to buy.
I own an Amazon Alexa, and I actually tried out listening to the different voices they offered during that time! It was hilarious! The marketing strategies that Amazon chose to create more exposure for the Alexa product was genius. Alexa also has celebrity options for your alarm with a short message to wake you up which is awesome! As an Alexa owner its really fun for me to stay in the know of different Alexa functions even as an owner versus a potential customer because you never know what Amazon has planned or in process to develop with Alexa!
This was a hysterical way to brand Alexa in a positive light. They had several celebrities which was a smart idea. I personally find Cardi B hilarious, but I have friends that can’t stand her. By having multiple celebrities, they increase the odds of people associating Alexa with someone they like as opposed to someone they detest.
This was by far my favorite ad of the Super Bowl! The celebrities Amazon chose were the perfect mix of diverse and humorous. It was a longer commercial than most, yet kept my attention the whole time because of how funny it was. Amazon also did a good job keeping in mind that most people have heard of these celebrities, so they chose certain quirks of each celebrity that everyone knows about. Izchel, I also loved your analysis of the commercial as well! It was very funny and I enjoyed reading it.
I enjoy this ad because the collection of celebrities ensures that there is someone for everyone. Bringing together a wide variety of popular celebrities into one ad that the public can laugh at is exactly what makes an ad like this so memorable. Whether you agree or disagree with the celebrities they chose, ads like this allow Amazon to continue to be talked about well after its commercial airs.
This ad was one of the best in this years Superbowl. Just for the fact of humour was used in a great way. By using these unique characters or people in which everyone knows and laughs at. These people they used as a voice for their Alexa product was genius. It is able to spark that emotion of laughter and just because you laughed during one of the ads you are more willing to go buy one just because you remember how great of an ad it was. When you buy the Alexa and whenever you may use the product will make you remember what a funny commercial it was and will make you an Amazon user as well. The use of laughter is a great selling point for companies for it makes the company seem more approachable and small. Allowing for me people to come to the site and maybe even buy the Alexa. This was a great ad especially with sparking an emotion that people will remember.
This commercial was absolutely hilarious and it was seriously a smart move on Amazon’s part to use big-name celebrities to “endorse” the product in a round-a-bout way. Having people like Gordon Ramsey and Rebel Wilson, who anyone who owns a television knows, utilize their humor to entertain and showcase the product to the audience was a good selling point. The main purpose of a commercial is to hold the viewer’s attention until the very end and to get interested in the product being advertised, which this commercial certainly did. I didn’t look away for a second and even though I don’t necessarily want an Alexa I still think it’s pretty darn cool. I have to say if Amazon keeps dishing out advertisements of this caliber they’ll have no trouble selling any of their products!
This was a great ad! I also liked how you explained who all of the celebrities were! I personally know Cardi B and Chef Ramsay from their respective professions, but I didn’t know who Rebel Wilson was at first.
Great ad! Amazon really did a good job with adding humor to spice their commercial up a bit. Showing their new product with a few famous people increases their credibility. Amazon already has a credible brand, but it doesn’t hurt to magnify that. I liked the fact that each famous person was used to help out in their specific interest. Gordon Ramsey for example was giving advice on how to make a grill cheese in his own mean way…
Alexa is pretty cool. Like previously stated, Amazon is always doing something to stay in conversation. Update (March 19th, 2018) of course Apple had to come out with a device that was similar to this. They can not let anyone else have the spotlight, theyre always doing some extra stuff! I hope Alexa stays in the front row for sales compared to the HomePod.
Since Alexa has such a distinct voice I think that is exactly why Amazon choose actors who have a recognizable voice as well.As you mentioned above, each scenarios matched the celebrities. A diverse crowd could absolutely recognize at least one, if not all, of these celebrities. Thank you for bringing this commercial to the surface!
I think Amazon did a great job of thinking outside the box. Alexa is something that is used in may households, and the fact that Amazon was able to think of including a celebrity that can hit different demographics was absolutely genius. The different personalities of the celebrities were clearly stated in the commercial and they did a good job of allowing each celebrities personality shine through the question that they were asked.
I remember watching this advertisement and it instantly drawing me in with the star studded cast and humor. It was an entertaining and memorable commercial that was perfect for the product, Alexa. Amazon’s Alexa is a popular, often discussed, and technological advanced item.
The ad’s of Alexa were agreeably brilliant at marketing to their target audience. Using the voices of famous actors in the absence of the already well known ‘Alexa’ creates an added layer of humor that had humor for nearly every millennial watching -especially because of the variety of actors used (actors related to food, comedy, music, etc.). I would be interested to know what quantitative research the marketing team did to choose those particular actors (in each field) for targeting.
This ad definitely took me by surprised, and I loved it! I also agree with the post that Amazon was targeting a younger audience such as millennials. This is a great demographic to appeal to because millennials are one of the largest in the market, and most of them want/use technology like Alexa in the everyday lives.
I really thought the personification of imagining that Alexa had lost her voice is quite clever. Also, of course, Amazon did a great job picking celebrities that you would never even imagine doing Siri. Instead of being a servant, Alexa becomes a mind of her own, with an attitude at that. The demographics that were targeted were likely to find this commercial hilarious because of it’s relativeness to them. So those of who don’t have the Echo yet, I’m sure will purchase one after seeing this!
Edit to post: “Also, of course, Amazon did a great job picking celebrities that you would never even imagine doing ‘ALEXA’.”
Wow do I love this commercial!! Probably because it has rebel Wilson and shes funny in everything but really this commercial I couldn’t imagine anyone not finding it great!
This ad was so funny. Bringing in these celebrities was a great way to reach out to my generation because so much of our culture is based around them. It’s also always a plus to make the viewer laugh. When celebrities are in goofy ads, it humanizes them a bit more and makes them more relatable to the viewer.
I loved this ad in the Super Bowl, it did such a great job in making all of Alexa’s functions clear and appealing. They implemented such strong celebrities that are widely known. They also implemented a lot of comedy which always makes products a little more appealing in my opinion. This was a great post and great connections were made to what the ad used as strategies.
This commercial will always be a great one to watch, even as years pass by. It incorporates current pop icons into the commercial and uses each icon’s brand in order to advertise the Alexa, which I think is really smart. There seemed to be a lot of commercials in this years super bowl that piggy backed off of another brand to advertise their product. I also think it is smart of Amazon to recognize that the Alexa is so well known that they don’t need to create an advertisement explaining it, but instead they should create an advertisement that will leave lasting impressions on the younger generation.
Amazon using these highly followed and highly talked about celebrities was genius. They targeted their demographic very well and did so with great humor. Personally, I remember an ad more when there is humor involved and it is not just facts being thrown at me. This commercial definitely succeeds in creating a lasting impression.
Amazon did a great job with this add. I love how each celebrity shows of their personality while being Alexa. Amazon also pick three very popular and recognizable celebrities to be Alexa for Super Bowl Sunday. Amazon definitely deserves all the praise they have received for this hilarious commercial.
This ad was one of the funniest that premiered Super Bowl night. I thought they did a good job in choosing the cast for the ad. Cardi B is someone who has been trending as a TV personality and rapper, as well as through memes. She is definitely someone who resonates with the generation advertising is aimed at. I also noticed that she had more screen time and promotion of her single and this is probably because of the demographic that follows her.
This ad was one of my favorites. I like how it catered to each age demographic and added humor in that everyone would get. I feel like it touched on how people are thinking that their devices are listening to them all the time, but it adds in humor with this. Especially with the one where she is taking a bubble bath and not checking the door for her, which in a way I think gave off how people depend on technology a little too much these days rather than walking a few feet to see whos at the door. What you wrote was nicely articulated as well. 🙂
I loved this ad! The way Amazon put it together and applied all of their different personalities into one was brilliant. With so many different people, I would have never thought they would all be in a commercial together but the diversity in it is perfect. I feel like it had so many celebrities that people love and they are all so different.