# Cute new Kindle ad / Paperwhite ad by Amazon is making news (MERGED)



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)




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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

That is a great ad, isn't it?

L


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## booklover888 (May 20, 2012)

Oh wow! I watched it earlier without the audio. Better with sound LOL!


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## Cyanide5000 (Aug 30, 2010)

haha thats awesome!


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Great commercial!  I have heard about it, but haven't seen it on tv yet.

I love that he buys a Paperwhite from his Ipad.  I love that they are both on vacation with their husbands.


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## kansaskyle (Sep 14, 2010)

Cute commercial, but Amazon's desire to use the Kindle as a means to normalize same-sex marriage saddens me.  I know Jeff Bezos supports this viewpoint, and he has the right to express it.

As a consumer, I'd be just as happy to not have advertisers push their social and/or political agenda in their ads.  They are welcome to promote their products, laud the features, but please skip the agenda.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I think you're reading way more into the ad than is really there. I think the fact that he has a 'husband' too, is just something to catch your attention and make you remember the ad. I mean, it's a fact, now, that in many places a man _can_ have a husband and, for that matter, a woman can have a wife. I don't see any agenda pushing, just a cute twist.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Cute ad. 

I don't see an agenda, I see 2 readers on the beach while their husbands are getting drinks. Well trained husbands.  

And I can relate to the guy trying to put the hands over the screen, I tried doing that outside on an ipad or my fire. I even tried sitting outside with my netbook and its like a black mirror.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

The ad is actually a trilogy. Who knew?

http://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/the-kindle-bikini-girl-trilogy-the-shocking-conclusion/1
Book Business

The Kindle Bikini Girl Trilogy: The Shocking Conclusion!

February 22, 2013 By Stephen Silver

You may be familiar with the saga of the Amazon Kindle Bikini Girl, a character who has been appearing in commercials for Amazon's popular e-reader for the last several years, most of which have included subtle or overt shots at Apple's rival iPad.

The first ad, in 2010, featured the bikini-clad lady, played by former NBA dancer Anna Zielinski, lounging poolside, telling an interested gentleman that she paid more for her sunglasses than for the then-$139 Kindle.

The ad, according to a CBS News blog post at the time, "plunged the nation into civil war," over whether or not Bikini Girl was likable. Adfreak described her at the time as "a snooty ice queen who brags about her frugality and flaunts her wasteful consumerism," although the commercial got millions of views on YouTube.

The campaign returned last February, at the time that Amazon launched three separate Kindles. This time, another interested gentleman approaches Bikini Girl, who points out that she has one Kindle for herself and two others for two of her children-and that altogether, the three cost less than the man's iPad. When he asks whether anyone has that seat, she replies "my husband."

Now, in the new ad, another gentleman is seated on the beach next to our still-bikini-clad super-reader. She again mentions her husband-leading into a surprise punchline that isn't going to be such a hit with the American Family Association.

Must be a relief for Bikini Girl, to not get hit on at the beach for once.

It's sort of refreshing that such an ad can run and not be especially controversial, something I couldn't have imagined as recently as five years ago. Amazon has a reputation as a very gay-friendly company and CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife donated $2.5 million to a successful campaign last year to legalize same-sex marriage in Amazon's home state of Washington.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Atunah said:


> Well trained husbands.


The best kind! 

I saw the ad on TV a few nights ago.


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## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

Love it! Thanks for sharing.


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

Love this ad!


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Good advert. 

I don't think it's pushing any kind of message other than saying the Kindle is for everyone. 

I think only those people who have an issue with same-sex marriage will see it as a political/social statement. The rest of us don't even notice, and see only a cute Kindle advert - which is as it should be.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

darn.... the ad's not showing on you tube anymore.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

I've seen the ad quite a few times on tv.  Didn't see it as pushing any agenda except the comparison to iPad agenda.

I did see it as not editing out a whole group of people, so that was nice.


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## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

telracs said:


> darn.... the ad's not showing on you tube anymore.


Found it:


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

It's so adorable. Have to post it to my Facebook.  

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2


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## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

Vegas_Asian said:


> Have to post it to my Facebook.


Ummm, speaking of FB, a PSA:






Be careful out there.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

thanks hamerfan, i was able to find it on a different site.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

I saw the Ad on TV tonight.


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## patrickt (Aug 28, 2010)

I don't have a television but I'd seen the ad on YouTube. All I found offensive was the erosion of the language. The word husband does have a definition. I don't think two men can be a husband, each to the other. A spouse is fine. So is a partner. It's rather like a birth certificate cannot list two fathers or two mothers. Of course, politically correct trumps all.

I think Kindle's agenda is to sell Kindles and ebooks. Imagine that.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

married man = husband
married woman = wife

neither implies the gender of the other person in the marriage


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

I think mainly real life trumps semantics and languages grow along with those who speak them.

And actually people have earned the title of husband or wife through common law, without a marriage ceremony.


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## MayoSoda (Jan 12, 2013)

One of the better commercials I've seen in a long time ha.


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## patrickt (Aug 28, 2010)

Seamonkey said:


> I think mainly real life trumps semantics and languages grow along with those who speak them.
> 
> And actually people have earned the title of husband or wife through common law, without a marriage ceremony.


I suppose people who consider "womyn" to be simply an "alternative spelling" as was stated in the last Wester's I saw would agree with you. Language clearly changes and should. But, people who care should try to maintain clarity.Of course, I do realize political correctness trumps language.

People did not "earn" the title of husband or wife through common-law. One "earned" a common-law marriage by using the terms husband and wife. By law, one distinction between a common-law marriage and simply living together was representing yourself as husband and wife, not the reverse. Where I worked, people started claiming a girlfriend was a "wife" so they could get the girlfriend covered on company health insurance. One young man who was engaged to get married went in to put his soon-to-be-wife on his insurance and learned that representing his girlfriend as a wife meant he had to divorce before he could marry his new love.

I will agree it is politically correct for a man to refer to his husband. I don't believe it is grammatically correct.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

patrickt said:


> I will agree it is politically correct for a man to refer to his husband. I don't believe it is grammatically correct.


I think society generally accepts telracs definitions:



telracs said:


> married man = husband
> married woman = wife
> 
> neither implies the gender of the other person in the marriage


And I don't think it has anything to do with 'political' correctness. Or grammatical correctness. Just "what works." 

Married people want, usually, others to know they're more than just 'partners'. . . . And I can't blame a person for not wanting to use the word 'spouse'. . . it's not 'the norm' and actually draws more attention in my opinion.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Remember that infamous agenda-pushing Kindle commercial from 1950? It showed a career woman on her way to work. Who does she think she is? Rosie the Riveter? It was fine when Our Boys were at war. But now she needs to cool her engines, and get back to the kitchen.

Remember that infamous agenda-pushing Kindle commercial from 1956? It showed black kids and white kids going to the same school. Drinking from the same fountains. Touching the same reading device.

The one not long after that with the tired "colored" woman just wanting the nearest seat on the bus, so she could sit down and read her book?

Remember that infamous agenda-pushing Kindle commercial from 1960? It showed an interracial couple. Which was just stirring the pot, because it wasn't even legal in all the states for seven more years.

To be clear... Well, let me be clear first on not having fallen on my head, and knowing Kindle had not been around that long. But to be clear on why I typed the words, I don't think anyone here would go along with racism or sexism ... and _that's_ the point.

It's only viewed as pushing an agenda, because it's 2013, not 2033. It's also simply domestic life for more and more Amazon customers.


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## Me and My Kindle (Oct 20, 2010)

Amazon's newest "Kindle at the beach" ad has a surprise ending...


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

That is the ad, or one of them, that we've been discussing.  I certainly enjoy any and all Kindle ads and so do my Kindles..


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## lindnet (Jan 25, 2009)

LOVE the ad!


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## Rusty Bigfoot (Jul 6, 2011)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/25/1189754/-Madison-Avenue-hoists-rainbow-victory-flag


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi,

we're talking about this in Let's Talk Kindle, so I'm going to merge it...thanks for understanding.

Betsy


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

kansaskyle said:


> Cute commercial, but Amazon's desire to use the Kindle as a means to normalize same-sex marriage saddens me. I know Jeff Bezos supports this viewpoint, and he has the right to express it.
> 
> As a consumer, I'd be just as happy to not have advertisers push their social and/or political agenda in their ads. They are welcome to promote their products, laud the features, but please skip the agenda.


The ad was amusing, not political. She mentioned her husband presumably as a defense against what she might have felt was an attempt to chat her up, he mentioned his husband to make it clear that he had no interest in chatting her up. I thought that is was rather clever. As for normalising same sex marriage - it is already normal in most places where society consists of normal people.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

kansaskyle said:


> Cute commercial, but Amazon's desire to use the Kindle as a means to normalize same-sex marriage saddens me. I know Jeff Bezos supports this viewpoint, and he has the right to express it.
> 
> As a consumer, I'd be just as happy to not have advertisers push their social and/or political agenda in their ads. They are welcome to promote their products, laud the features, but please skip the agenda.


Same sex couples are not going back in the closet to suit you.

ETA: Cute ad and non-political as long as you are aware that there are all kinds of people in the world and that this is normal.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

I think it's a cute ad, and the use of the word "husband" seems perfectly sensible to me, in both cases.


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

It's a great ad and it's very cute, but of course it's political. I am married. I have a wife. We have a daughter. We are a family. It is the sad state of our culture that bigots and hatemongers still have enough political power that it remains political. 

Good for Amazon. They're being political and they're on the right side of history.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

As with any commercial, some people are going to like it, some aren't and some don't watch commercials.  It may have played on a TV near me, but my hubby is so anti-commercial that he switches the channel instantly whenever there's an ad.  Or at least mutes it.

Betsy


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> It may have played on a TV near me, but my hubby is so anti-commercial that he switches the channel instantly whenever there's an ad. Or at least mutes it.


Oh, me too. I haven't watched an ad on TV in forever. The irony is that when I hear about an interesting one, I actively go hunt it down on YouTube, which sort of challenges my "anti-commercial" status, I think.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

It's only a political statement if you interpret it as one. Including a variety of people in an ad (in theory representing all of your potential customers) is just ordinary.


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## brainstorm (Dec 8, 2009)

I remember when we first started seeing _******* _ featured in commercials. I'm sure there were those who felt the advertisers were pushing a political agenda then, too. But for the rest of us, it was quite a thing to see people who like us AT LAST having headaches and buying cars and eating hamburgers.

I'm all for the inclusion. Time moves on.

Thank goodness.


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Isn't 2.5 million a lot money for one commercial out of the Super Bowl season?
Gene


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## alicepattinson (Jan 27, 2013)

That's a lovely ad!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

kb7uen Gene said:


> Isn't 2.5 million a lot money for one commercial out of the Super Bowl season?
> Gene


Not sure where you got that figure. . . .but, is that really the point?

Ads cost what they cost. Companies pay what they think they're worth. 

*I* thought it was cute. . .with an "O Henry" like twist at the end.  Which is why I posted it here in the first place.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> . . .with an "O Henry" like twist at the end.


Which husband was Henry ... and how did you know?


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## TLM (Apr 8, 2010)

I saw it earlier this week and thought it was not only cute and funny, but effective.  It caught my attention because of the twist at the end plus I paid attention to it being a kindle.  O.k., that might have been because I love my kindle and would have noticed a kindle commercial of any kind.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

I liked it.  Just hope it doesn't get blown out of proportion like the chik fil a thing.


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## ragano (Sep 24, 2012)

Leave it to Amazon to create a seminal ad that people will be talking about decades from now.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/with-amazon-ad-marketers-come-out-of-the-closet-2013-02-22

Here's the ad if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lS3t9reE364


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## MINImum (Oct 15, 2009)

Love it, for so many reasons.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

We've got a thread already, I'll be merging these....

Betsy


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## charlie51923 (Mar 4, 2013)

It was good until the childish ending.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I didn't see anything wrong with it. I just wanted to know what they were drinking..


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## Not Here (May 23, 2011)

Too cute! Not really a political statement since they aren't really promoting anything other than buying a Paperwhite. I do think it's a statement and that works for me.


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## citykid (Jan 10, 2011)

I think--hope!--that in not too long a time the ending won't even seem like a twist to us or stand out in any way.  We will just be used to same-sex couples being part of the fabric of our society, as I think they are increasingly becoming.  Last year I was walking on the street with my 11-year-old daughter and she said "Oh, look, there is David's husband!"  I was struck by how naturally the words came out of her mouth and by how it was unimaginable when I was 11 that there would be such an acceptance of people being married to someone of their own sex.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> As with any commercial, some people are going to like it, some aren't and some don't watch commercials. It may have played on a TV near me, but my hubby is so anti-commercial that he switches the channel instantly whenever there's an ad. Or at least mutes it.
> 
> Betsy


Heh. I don't watch TV at all so I saw the ad on Youtube. It is cute. I was charmed but Amazon has long been actively on the right side of this issue.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Yeah, I finally saw it the other day.  Nicely done.  

Betsy


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