Amazon drafts Harrison Ford, NASA twins for Super Bowl 2019 ad
A set of mysterious teasers hints at Amazon's Beta Testing Program for celebrities.
Star Wars star Harrison Ford hates it already. Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson from Broad City are confounded. Oscar winner Forest Whitaker thinks it's weird. Mark and Scott Kelly, NASA's now-retired twin astronauts, are playing it cool.
That's what we know so far about the Super Bowl ad for the Amazon Beta Testing Program, set to air Feb. 3 during the championship NFL game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.
Amazon posted a set of teaser videos on its Alexa blog Thursday.
The post says the beta program is a top-secret division of Amazon that "employs celebrities to test Alexa-enabled technologies such as sub-aquatic audio waveform resonance, interspecies language translation, and voice-controlled body de-stressors."
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When you ask your Alexa device, "What is the Amazon Beta Testing Program," it tells you it's not supposed to talk about it until the Super Bowl. But then Alexa reveals a secret access code. Give Alexa the code and you hear "Access granted." The voice assistant describes the program as hush-hush, confidential and classified, but then refuses to drop any more details.
We'll have to wait until Feb. 3 to understand the celebrity reactions and why they all have a blue glow on their faces.
Amazon's 2018 Super Bowl ad starring CEO Jeff Bezos was one of the best-received commercials during the game. The online retail giant is going to have to work hard to top that performance.