Well, well… A new video was released today “Did Alexa Lose Her Voice” staring no other than Jeff Bezos himself! And it looks like there are a few clues to where Amazon HQ2 will be… AUSTIN, Texas!!! Well, thats what some on YouTube are saying and one can only speculate… (yes, I’m included with the speculation).
The commercial starts with an Amazon employee (actress) who is brushing her teeth. She asks Alexa, “Alexa, What’s the weather like today?” Alexa mentions before she is cut off due to some type of cold, “In AUSTIN, it’s 60 degre…. *cough, cough*”… Austin? Why ask what the temperature is in Austin? And why the cough?
There are some juicy clues in this commercial… Below are some of my own speculations…
CLUE #1 – “In Austin, it’s 60 degrees with a cha…”
Real estate: Unlike the Seattle area real estate, you can buy a brand new 3,000 square foot home in the Austin area for $300,000. If you want a 3,000 square foot new home in Seattle, that will cost you well over $1.2 million…yes. You read that correctly.
Education: The schools in Austin are pretty good in some areas but they really do not meet that standard as Lake Washington School District. But the University of Texas is one of the best public universities in the country.
Whole Foods: Yes, Whole Foods is headquartered in Austin. If Amazon intends to shake the grocery industry, Alexa surely would help make that possible. Simply tell Alexa what you need to order by voice and it will be shipped to you directly. Now the Alexa team and Whole Foods needs to work closely together.
CLUE #2 – *cough*
I have lived and worked in Seattle and we do get a lot of colds up there. Perhaps this is a sign that Alexa is tired of being sick in Seattle and wants to go to… a warmer place?
CLUE #3 – Design of UI on commercial
I’ve worked with hundreds of designers in all industries. When they present an idea, they typically leave ‘watermarks’. But designers’ ‘watermarks’ are unique. If designers create a credit card flow mockup design to present, they present the numbers as “1234567…” or “00000”. Sometimes they leave their own watermarks such as: their birthday, their children’s birthday, etc. And any number is typically not randomly chosen – especially when this mockup news report filled the whole screen.
Now take a look at the mockup news in the Amazon commercial:
What’s this!? 8:34 AM… what does 8:34 AM mean? With all that crazy traffic in Seattle, who gets to Amazon at 8:34 AM? Is there a meaning to this time? If Jeff Bezos is at work (in this commercial), it would be 10:34 AM in Austin. Yea, that seems the perfect time when IT peeps get to work…So was this commercial location supposed to be in Austin? Yea, I too am a little confused…
CLUE #4 – “We have the replacements ready, just say the word…”
Does this mean Alexa will be replaced? Who will replace her? A voice? Will she be replaced by a British accent? A better sounding female voice? Or is this a hint that Alexa will move to Austin to be less succumbed to colds?
CLUE #5 – Super Bowl LII Announcement
Just around the corner and during the peak time to release potential features or products or the actual location of Amazon HQ2. Jeff is bound to shake the country while taking advantage of one of the larges events in America, Super Bowl LII. Surely Alexa isn’t that important to announce a new voice or replacement. That’s a very expensive commercial for such an updated feature. So something should surely be announced for this very expensive commercial… One could only speculate that it will be the time to announce Amazon HQ2… and they mentioned AUSTIN.
CLUE #6 – Austin…why ask the weather in Austin…
Perhaps Jeff has already made the decision to have the HQ2 in Austin but did not want to suddenly announce it. It surely would have pissed off a lot of consumers. There must have been some strategic reasoning to have it in Austin but perhaps it was just a place that Jeff recommended. It is a huge contrast from Seattle price-wise and weather-wise. He could recruit a huge mass of a talented workforce, especially those who would not move to Seattle because of the weather and prices.
CLUE #7 – He was born and raised in the south…
Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in Houston, Texas. In March 2015, he inherited 25,000 acres of land in Catulla, Texas from his maternal parents. And did you know that George Strait is Jeff Bezo’s distant cousin who also lives in Texas? Seems like southern boys like their warm weather, family and Texas BBQ! Why would Jeff want to have another HQ in a cold, rainy place when theres family in Texas?
(credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos)
In Closing…
Some may say that this commercial will introduce a new Alexa voice? But why spend so much money on a commercial for such a simple feature… and why mention Austin weather and not Seattle? There is some sincere meaning to this commercial. There is some type of importance when Jeff Bezos himself is in one of his own commercials. Maybe Jeff loves Austin. Yea, Dallas works a lot better strategically, but maybe…he just likes Austin BBQ, cheap real estate, great people, hills, sun…
What do you think?
(UPDATED 2/1/2018)
In regards to USA Today’s release (link) Where gay rights activists are protesting against Amazon HQ2 in cities such as Austin and Dallas due to discrimination, that is false. Perhaps it would appear so 10-20 years ago, but during that time, LGBT had its own struggles in Seattle.
In Houston, Annise Parker was mayor from 2010 to 2016. She also married her long-time partner in 2014 during her term. In 2012, the Bezos family donated $2.5 million to a Washington State campaign to legalize same-sex marriage. He may very well be on his way to support LGBT in the Texas communities.
This goes to show that other cities are leveraging on this old belief that Texas does not accept LGBT couples or communities. Despite what Conor Gaughan (who is a social impact and political impact strategy firm in Washington DC and LA which are both competing with Austin and Dallas), it is illegal for apartment companies or private leasing owners to discriminate against same-sex couples. Jeff Bezos may only be like he was in Seattle, a supporter to change that mind-set of the majority that same-sex marriage is acceptable. To think what Conor Gaughan wrote in regards to Texas or southern cities discriminate against LGBT is much like saying that everyone in Texas all ride horses to work. It is Conor Gaughan’s profession to persuade society to think one way or another to their advantage.
It is legal in Texas to marry the same-sex and does not discriminate. Some benefits however, still need some updating which surely would be improved if Jeff Bezos makes Amazon HQ2 in Austin. When such a mindset is changed in a very conservative state, it will spread to other states.
Be careful what you read. Do your research.
