In August 2018, Amazon launched a new ad campaign for its music-streaming service that synced up floating, disembodied lips with vocals from star performers like Freddie Mercury, Whitney Houston, and Kendrick Lamar.
One common reaction to the “A Voice Is All You Need” campaign: “It just doesn’t feel like Amazon,” Claudine Cheever, the company’s global general manager of marketing and advertising, conceded at the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) 2018 Strategy Festival.
“But there was something about it which was so true to the power of the differentiator for...