Alec Baldwin Sells Amazon Echo in Super Bowl Commercial
Amagansett’s busiest star Alec Baldwin appears in Amazon’s first Super Bowl commercial with legend Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. A 30-second teaser for the ad, revealed Wednesday, shows Baldwin and Marino in a comedic conversation aided by Amazon Echo—the company’s new digital assistant device, a la Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana, though it’s not part of a mobile phone.
The sleek and cylindrical Echo, which also functions as an immersive 360º omni-directional speaker, appears in the ad, offering information to help Baldwin and Marino while they brainstorm ideas for Super Bowl party.
Echo’s preloaded digital assistant, called “Alexa,” is a cloud-based voice service that answers questions, reads audiobooks and the news, reports traffic and weather, offers information on local businesses, provides sports scores and schedules and more, according to Amazon’s product listing.
The device, which is available now for $179.99, also plays music from Prime Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and more using voice commands it claims can be recognized from a good distance, even while music is playing. Echo also controls smart home devices, such as lights and switches with compatible WeMo, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Wink, Insteon and others.
Amazon says Echo is constantly getting smarter and adding new features and skills. It has acquired 95 such improvements since launch, according to the online retailer.
In the commercial, Baldwin asks, “Alexa, what’s a snack stadium?” to which the device, its blue ring of light pulsing to Alexa’s words, replies “A stadium built entirely of snacks.”
Who knew a computer could be so smart?
Expect Amazon to show off more of Echo’s features and skills during the big game on February 7.
Watch the video below.