Yes, Forest Whitaker, it’s weird. Amazon has launched a series of 10-second Super Bowl teasers, that simply welcome celebrities to the “Amazon beta-testing program” before cutting out.

The blue-hued teasers feature Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson from sitcom, Broad City; and retired NASA astronauts, Mark and Scott Kelly.

https://youtu.be/wde-kthBI58

The program, Amazon says, is “a top secret division which “employs celebrities to test Alexa-enabled technologies such as sub-aquatic audio waveform resonance, interspecies language translation, and voice-controlled body de-stressors.”

The company has also created a web page, All Thing Alexa, in which it calls it explains (cryptically) “Amazon recruited some famous friends to test new Alexa technologies,” and states “Not everything makes the cut.”

This year’s Super Bowl commercial will be Amazon’s fourth in a row that promotes Alexa. Last year’s, Alexa loses her voice,  which hwas also crammed with celebrities, was a massive hit.

If you ask Alexa, she will tell you that she’s not supposed to talk about it until the Super Bowl, but then reveals a secret access code. Give

Alexa the code and you hear, “Access granted.” Alexa then describes the program as hush-hush, confidential and classified, but does not add any more details.

https://youtu.be/9IZprjQVgzo

https://youtu.be/UM-FV0LYU0g

https://youtu.be/bD09Bi7v_w8