Created to run in the ad break of the 2020 Super Bowl – the most significant annual event in the US sporting calendar, where commercial slots are priced in the millions – this spot aims to humorously imagine what life was like before voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa were invented.

The ad opens with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and actor Portia de Rossi in their home, making use of Alexa to adjust the thermostat before going out. DeGeneres then speculates on what people did before Alexa and the viewer is thrust back in time into various historical scenes that jokingly enact the many ways that people might previously have achieved what voice assistants do so easily today. 

The resulting ad is an epic blockbuster that played to a 150-million strong audience on Super Bowl Sunday. 

Agency: Droga5 London
CCO: David Kolbusz
Group Creative Directors: Shelley Smoler, Raph Basckin  
Creative Director/Lead Writer: Matt Hubbard
Senior Agency Producer: Rachel Hough
Production Assistant: Manon Rees
Joint Managing Director: Heather Cuss
Account Director: Max Levine
Strategy Directors: Damien Le Castrec, Achim Schauerte
Contributing Writers: Dave Wigglesworth, Ed Redgrave, Teddy Souter, Frazer Price, Ethan Bennett, Cecile Robertshaw
Production Companies: Somesuch; Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers
Managing Director/Executive Producer: Seth Wilson (Somesuch)
Managing Director/Co-Owner: Michael Ritchie (Revolver)
Executive Producer/Partner: Pip Smart (Revolver)
Producer: Lee Groombridge
Production Manager: Luke Thornton
DOP: Emmanuel Lubezki