Amazon is no stranger to Super Bowl ads, and the company has another one ready for this year’s big game. The 2021 ad stars actor Michael B. Jordan, who you might know as Erik Killmonger from Black Panther or quarterback Vince Howard from Friday Night Lights, as the company’s Alexa smart assistant.
In the ad, a woman dreams of what it would be like if Alexa was personified as the very handsome Jordan, and she’s appropriately smitten with the AI. At one point, for example, the woman asks Alexa to dim the lights, and Jordan takes off his shirt in response. (Her partner then humorously rushes over to demand Alexa turn the lights back up.)
The ad is a fun twist on Super Bowl ads that use attractive women to sell something. (Some of Carl’s Jr. and GoDaddy’s infamous Super Bowl commercials come to mind.) It’s all made that much better by Jordan’s terrifying eyes, which are the unnatural glowy-blue you might recognize from the rings on an Amazon Echo device.
You can watch a 60-second version of the commercial at the top of this post. A 90-second version is embedded in a tweet from Amazon.
This isn’t the first time Amazon has used a celebrity to impersonate Alexa in a Super Bowl ad. The 2018 commercial featured the voice talents of Gordon Ramsay, Rebel Wilson, Cardi B, and Anthony Hopkins as Alexa when it “lost” its voice. And if you want to reminisce on many years of other star-studded Alexa ads from Amazon, here’s a list of the company’s past Super Bowl shorts:
