To find the new Alexa ad sexist and disturbing

[Sugarleaf]

The premise seems to be: men can’t help their aggression and swearing, but they have to try to rein it in for the sake of the women and children, so Alexa steps in to help.
I googled the man in question and apparently he’s well known, but I had no idea who he was. What I see is a man being aggressive, AI playing music so ‘the cops aren’t called,’ leaving his sister and the children outside while he tries to get his aggression out of his system.

And I really don’t like the way this portrays women as genteel, non-swearing creatures who need protecting from men’s behaviour. Women swear. We don’t need to be cast as the delicate audience for men trying to manage their own behaviour.

Alexa being a female and coaching this poor aggressive man just adds to the weirdness
The whole premise feels pretty patronising

AIBU?

(ps the original post was withdrawn due to a problem with the link!)

Just go on Google, no need to give you links. Amazon and Microsoft are now shifting their cooling methods using recycled water and rainnwater. Is a new industry but they will develop the technology needed to minimise the impact. And compared with other industries including manufacture, air travel and many others the amount of water used is still very small. So, no, I do not agree with AI because I think it dumbs us down and we will be unable to write an email shortly (I don't use it for this reason) but repeating like a parrot some numbers that "could" happen in a decade because your read it in an article without researching properly does not win the argument. No one can predict what will happen in ten years simply because technology is being developed all the time. My reason does not either, people are free to chose to use it as they wish.

Alexa is depicted as a woman, it's nothing to do with unconscious biases being impacted by the men who were involved in the input data, training data etc. . ...

He is TOTALLY playing his Ted Lasso character, that's the characters voice, not his own, which is distinctly different. He likely just can't use his characters name because of copyright or contracts or whatever. I think the issue is that you just haven't seen Ted Lasso.

His character is a gruff sweary bloke who point blank refuses to admit he has emotions, or is affected by them, and over the first 3 series, comes to aknowledge them and become very soft on the inside and totally transforms. Regardless of whether it's the first episode or the very last, he is very much about respect and team work, and would just never lay a finger on a woman.

Funnily enough I've been thinking over the past few days that someone like Roy Kent would be the ideal man for me. I would WANT Ted, but I would actually be far better to Roy.

Seriously OP, you should watch Ted Lasso. It's well worth a month's subscription to AppleTV. It's very feel-good, wholesome telly that will leave your heart happy. Even if you don't like football it's simply brilliant.

I didn't state, 10 years, I stated end of the decade. So you 'have' Googled and read an article on what they plan on doing, are commencing with? Some of us like to challenge the 'collective thick' I mean 'think' on this topic.

Haha my fave comment today!

Agreed. OP definitely needs to watch it. @Sugarleaf message me with your bank details and I'll send you a month's subscription fee. You desperately need some Ted Lasso in your life.

Yes, indeed, depicted. Not an actual woman. I wouldn't feel differently about the advert if it was a male voice, if it had an accent, not remotely. As I know it's AI. Which isn't a person. And doesn't denote any gender just through the use of a speech setting. You know Alexa has more than one voice don't you? It's personal preference as to which one you pick - same with your sat nav. You can also change Alexa's name to suit you, it doesn't have to be called Alexa.

Its not a US show. It's British. Filmed and based in Richmond. It's just the main character who is is American.

How on earth did you interpret this as sexist, disturbing or aggressive?

There isn't the slightest hint of aggression or anger. It's literally just about childless people having to mind their language around kids. It's not about him calming down or being angry. It's just about him not swearing. The fact that he's a man is neither here nor there. He happens to be an actor/comic who is known for swearing in his most famous role.

It isn't 'a woman helping a man to calm down' because Alexa ISN'T A BLOODY HUMAN BEING for god's sake.

But in this advert like all the others it is a feminine voice depicted. Equally, 'Alexa' is a girl's name and it defaults to the feminine voice. The advert is very obviously playing on this tragic camaraderie.

Yes of course, they already started, check Microsoft. I will not do the research for you just to prove a point. And you are not very witty with your attempt at insulting me and calling me thick, someone who resorts to insults, even masked as juvenile spelling mistake, is not worth having a debate with. I never insulted you. Peace.

I also think your stats are wildly wrong for figuring out how many people will know his Character.

Each Apple subscription is watched by far more than 1 person.... Whole families of 4 or 5. And that's CURRENT subscriptions, plenty people will have watched it when they had a subscription but no longer do. Plenty will have watched it on "dodgy boxes", or round at friends houses, or just seen a few episodes of YouTube. There's far more people know who Roy Kent is than the 0.7% of the population you calculated. And I'm assuming Amazon will target their Alexa adverts at times those people with similar interests and age ranges more are likely to watching.

Both the Vicar from my church AND his wife have seen Ted Lasso. It's very well liked.

With a U.S. production company. It one of those shows that is trying to appeal to both sides of the Atlantic for more revenue, probably why it's set in Richmond as many Americans will no where that is! I haven't seen it though so TBF it may be very good, I suppose this isn't what the thread is about though.

On the back of this, if you've not seen Ted Lasso (at least twice cos its so good) you may need to get Apple TV for long enough to watch it. You would also understand the character portrayed who swears a lot but is in no way aggressive, and treats the ladies in his life the way they would wish to be treated. Unfortunately he is a little too hairy for me though!

That should read, 'know' not 👆

I have bigger issue with people claiming AI speaker is "female" tbh. It's a robot

If you call a stranger on the internet, who's background you don't know i.e.you don't know if I have 'just read a article' a 'parrot' I would argue that it the very least you have no self awareness. I am not asking you to link me to articles about Microsoft's good intentions. ✌️

What are you finding challenging about me argument. It's a robot, it's a robot- it didnt build itself did it, not exactly ground breaking to know about and question inbuilt biases. Im more worried by people who don't understand this.

Well if you're going to be pedantic without actually having seen it, it's (partly) about an American settling in England, taking the mick out of his annoyingly American cheerful outlook on life, plenty of jokes about tea and biscuits, language barriers, pub life, English football league characters, the weather, so so many jokes Americans wouldn't even get, and many many British characters. You don't even get the feeling it's an American show filmed in England, it's just...... British. IMHO it really really doesn't come across as "American" in any way shape or form.

Does it never get boring, finding offense in everything?

Ted Lasso is a pile of shit.

I can’t believe Amazon thought people would get the reference.

Amazon Prime are clueless.

It's akin to some of the 80s washing up liquid adverts.

This is a crazy reach. Im not sure where you got your stats from, just less than 10% of UK homes get Apple TV (and more wil have access via dodgy fireside type set ups) and Ted Lasso is the most popular show on that platform. As another pp pointed out, there will be multiple people in those home. It has been up for and won loads of awards. Its not niche.

The character isn't being aggressive. There are so many other things to be offended by, this isn't one of them.

I have Apple - I watch Slow Horses on it!