Alexa ‘apologizes' to Dallas and other rejected HQ2 cities

If you’re upset about Amazon’s decision to build its newest headquarters in New York and Virginia rather than Dallas, you don’t need to go too far to get an apology.

Amazon’s Alexa will apologize to residents of the 17 finalists that missed the cut.

Specifically, Dallas’ message apologizes to the entire metroplex. Alexa takes the time to list every single city in the area including Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Garland, Grand Prairie, McKinney, Frisco, Mesquite, Carrollton, Denton, Richardson and Lewisville, as well as Addison, Allen, Anna, Azle, Balch Springs, Bedford, Benbrook, Burleson… (you get the point).

Alexa then stresses the message is not actually from Amazon.

In fact, an Austin-based ad agency is behind the humorous apologies. The folks at McGarrah Jessee developed the Please Apologize skill earlier this year and told Ad Week they decided to use it create the apology they thought Austin deserved.

In Austin’s message, Alexa explains it wasn’t the lack of infrastructure and incentives the city offered. “It’s us,” she says. Alexa says there’s a lot of pressure to keep it weird all the time. She also mentions Austin’s bat population.

“For all we know, you're all secretly vampires… like a sanctuary city for vampires who love tacos. Sorry, this is coming out all wrong,” she says.

Wanna try it out? Go here to enable the skill. Or you can listen to all of the apologies in the player below. (Mobile users can click here to be redirected to a player.)