Amazon Alexa is getting into the minds of Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost in the new Super Bowl ad from the multinational tech company.
The commercial (watch below) sees the Hollywood couple going about their regular home life as Alexa Routines frequently interrupts with prescient suggestions. This starts innocently enough by chilling a cabinet of rosé for an afternoon football game and ordering minty fresh toothpaste to help with Johansson’s morning breath.
Things then take an amusingly dark turn as the virtual assistant begins reading the unspoken thoughts of its owners. This includes a reminder for the Saturday Night Live star to “fake his own death” before his wife’s doomed stage show opens and a perfectly cued interruption of Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” when the Black Widow actress says that filming love-making scenes is “the worst.”
The ad ends with an awkward dinner party as Alexa continues to speak out loud the couple’s embarrassing inner thoughts. “It’s probably better Alexa can’t read your mind,” Jost concludes. “Bad idea,” Johansson agrees.
Johansson and Jost got hitched in 2020 and last year welcomed their first child, Cosmo, who does not feature in the commercial. Jost is best known for his work on SNL; he also appeared in the 2021 movie Coming 2 America. Johansson recently reprised her role as Black Widow in the Marvel superhero movie of the same name; she’s also appeared on several episodes of SNL, hosting the show six times. She will next star in the Wes Anderson film Asteroid City.
A 60-second cut of the Amazon commercial will air during Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. It follows last year’s Amazon spot, which featured Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan becoming the human embodiment of Alexa.
Super Bowl LVI, Sunday, February 13, 2022, NBC
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Can smart speakers predict sports outcomes?
These days, many humans rely on smart speakers to do everything from ordering groceries and sharing the weather forecast to setting home alarms. And until Skynet takes over and they become sentient, we can ask our tiny robot servants dumb questions, like which team they think will win Sunday's Super Bowl game, and they have to answer.
CityBeat employees have a slew of digital home assistants and we asked each brand — Siri, Google and Alexa — to predict whether the Cincinnati Bengals or the Los Angeles Rams would bring home the Vince Lombardi trophy this weekend.
Here's what they said.
Alexa
CityBeat: Alexa, do you think the Bengals are going to win the Super Bowl?Alexa: The Rams sure know how to butt heads, but the Bengals seem to have nine lives. My prediction? These underdogs — I mean undercats — are going to pounce. Go Bengals! Who Dey!
Siri
CityBeat: Hey Siri, are the Cincinnati Bengals going to win the Super Bowl?Siri: "Some Dreams Come True" by The Bangles starts playing on Spotify.CityBeat: Hey Siri, who's going to win the Super Bowl?
Siri: The odds favor the Rams over the Bengals by 4 points.
CityBeat: Hey Siri, who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?
Siri: I'm hearing that the Rams are favored to defeat the Bengals by 4 points.
Google: The Rams will be playing in their home stadium in L.A., so they have home field advantage — even though the Cincinnati Bengals are considered the home team for this game. So I guess if I said I was rooting for the home team, it could technically mean I was rooting for both. I love an underdog though, so I'll go against the odds here and pick the Bengals.
CityBeat: Hey Google, who will win the Super Bowl?
Google: If the Cincinnati Bengals win, it would be the franchise's first-ever title. The L.A. Rams have
already been champions once. I think all the teams should get a turn, so Who Dey all the way. Who Dey chant plays.
CityBeat: Hey Google, who is going to win the Super Bowl?
Google: This year's game comes with some great QB backstories. Prior to this season, Matthew Stafford had zero post-season victories and he's turned that around in his first year on the Rams. If the Bengals win, Joe Burrow would be the only quarterback to win a Heisman Trophy, a
national title and the big game. I think we'll see him get the triple crown. Bengals for the win.
And while it looks like Google and Alexa are members of Who Dey Nation — and Siri is really boring — gambling sites are saying the Bengals are the underdog, but "Madden NFL 22" predicts Cincinnati will win the big game.
Regardless, two out of three robots agree: The Bengals deserve a Super Bowl win.
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