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Alexa reads Scarlett Johansson’s mind for the Super Bowl | #BehindTheIdea

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Lucky Generals have worked on three previous adverts shown during the Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the NFL in the US. This year’s game will see the Cincinatti Bengals take on the Los Angeles Rams, and the advert the UK agency has been working on this year features a genuine movie star.

Avenger and Oscar-nominated actor Scarlett Johansson and her husband, comedian Colin Jost, star in the Super Bowl ad, which advertises the Amazon Alexa by positing the ubiquitous device as a literal mind-reader. It will be shown during the ad break before the final quarter, which will be at around 2.15am in the UK on Sunday night/Monday morning this weekend.

With the average price for a 30-second advert during this year's game said to be around $6.5m, according to NBC, the odds have never been higher. Creative Martin Tighe, however, feels they might be on to a bit of a winner. Because, at a time when the world is fumbling for ways to rein in the big tech gang, the campaign gives Amazon a human face too. The famous faces don’t exactly hurt either, as we find out in today’s #BehindTheIdea.

What was the brief?

Lucky Generals seem to have found a winning formula for these Alexa Super Bowl ads so Amazon were just like ‘more of the same please’.

How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?

We all obviously want to make the Alexa Super Bowl ad so there are hundreds of ideas presented. Somehow it came about that two teams had the same winning idea, so we ended up working as a threesome. Telepathy maybe?

What was the process behind ideating the concept?

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We play the numbers game. We figure the best idea out of 100 is bound to be better than the best idea out of 10.

What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?

What was good was that we were all pushing and pushing to make the jokes as funny as they could be. We were even able to tweak and change the jokes in post-production because we could record Alexa’s responses afterwards.

What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?

Getting to see Scarlett and Colin working together on set was definitely the highlight. Their improvisation on the day had us all in stitches.

What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?

It’s just a bit of fun, let everyone see that Amazon can have a laugh.

How long did it take from inception to delivery?

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About 6 months. First, we collaborated with the director as well as Scarlett and Colin to write the script. Then we went over to New York to shoot the ad in early January and since then been working on the post production.

What do you hope it achieves for the brand?

Well there’s the USA Today Ad Meter which ranks the Super Bowl ads. Winning that would be amazing, but would be happy just to be near the top.

Credit list for the work?

DBT – ECD

Gareth Morgan, Martin Tighe, Joe Mallett – Creatives

Joe Bagnall, Camilla Hempleman-Adams – LGs Producers

Sarah Quinn, Lou Bodily – LG Account Team

Prod Co: Hungry Man

Director: Wayne McClammy

Rick Jarjoura – Hungry Man Producer

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