Amazon may have made a splash during last month’s Super Bowl with an Alexa ad that dominated water cooler conversations, but Google came roaring back this weekend with a whole host of new ads for its Assistant, a couple of which aired during Sunday’s Academy Awards.
With the battle heating up again between the two tech giants and their respective products in the smart home market, Google and Amazon are tapping celebrity talent to tout their artificial intelligence in commercials.
For the Super Bowl Alexa ad, Amazon turned to CEO Jeff Bezos as well as Cardi B, Gordon Ramsey, Rebel Wilson, and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
On Sunday, Google dropped ads featuring John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Kevin Durant and Sia, as well as four more ads in a campaign dubbed “Make Google Do It.” Here are a few of those, showcasing the mundane tasks — “a million things made easier” — such as making lists and using the TV remote, which Google believes would be better handled by its Assistant:
Google Nest also got in on the action during the Oscars, in a timely buy that comes in the wake of Amazon’s acquisition of rival smart doorbell maker Ring.
In an ad called “Prom Night” released last Friday, a boy headed off with his date on prom night gets some nice advice about proper behavior from his dad. But the talk on the front steps is delivered via Nest, as the dad is shown using his smart phone in the hospital where he is working as a doctor.
In an age where technology and social media in particular are lumped into the conversation around the degradation of young people’s moral standing, Google at least shows tech as a tool for doing the right thing.
