Amazon’s Super Bowl Gag Isn’t Landing Well With Workers
Amazon briefly added a superhero to its organizational chart, and not everyone inside the company found it funny.
On Thursday, employees who logged into Amazon’s internal directory were surprised to see actor Chris Hemsworth listed as “Chief Heartthrob” for Alexa devices. The profile included an Amazon email address, a side role as a “bar raiser” (an internal hiring position), and a playful bio claiming hobbies like bear wrestling and hammer throwing, according to Reuters. Coworkers even began awarding him digital badges for skills such as CPR and a fondness for flan, racking up nearly 500 in total.
The fake profile was part of a marketing push tied to Amazon’s Super Bowl ad promoting Alexa’s new generative AI features. In the commercial, which also features Hemsworth’s real-life wife Elsa Pataky, the actor imagines a series of dramatic mishaps caused by a rogue Alexa—ranging from a garage door accident to a bear attack—before the voice assistant reassures him that it’s there to help, not harm. Amazon has been working to revamp Alexa, which has struggled to generate profits, and recently announced that a new version, Alexa+, will be available to all Prime members.
Inside Amazon, however, the joke didn’t land well for some employees. The stunt came after the company laid off about 16,000 corporate workers, including many from the Alexa team, and followed a disappointing earnings report that affected the company’s stock. At the same time, The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, began significant job cuts this week, eliminating roughly a third of its staff.
On an internal platform, one employee wrote sarcastically that Hemsworth’s appearance made up for “the hollow feeling of cleaning out my peer’s desk” after a layoff. Another described the move as more insulting than humorous.
An Amazon spokesperson called the Hemsworth listing a “fun internal Easter egg” ahead of the Super Bowl and did not directly respond to employee criticism. Representatives for Hemsworth did not comment. By late Thursday, the actor’s profile had been quietly updated: the “Chief Heartthrob” now reportedly reports to the head of devices and services.
About Post Author
