Amazon's 'Life in Seattle' recruitment video becomes target of parodies from Sub Pop Records and music producer Spekulation

A video created by Amazon to encourage people to relocate to their Seattle HQ has been the target of a number of harsh parodies.

Amazon’s ‘Life in Seattle’ starts with an employee saying “A friend of mine is born and raised in Portland, so I asked him ‘what do you know about Seattle?’ and he said ‘just go to Seattle, you’ll love it’.” This is followed by another employee who says: “I am from Southern California and the one thing I like is the opportunity to be outdoorsy, it’s a lot easier here than it was in Southern California.

“I rock climb, and so there are, within very short distance of each other, three climbing gyms here.”

This general theme continues throughout the video with Amazon workers highlighting the key selling points of the city and dousing any negative rumours about torrential rain.

However, the video has recently been parodied by employees at Sub Pop Records, a record label that is also based in Seattle.


The company says that the Amazon video “had the staff at Sub Pop Records newly excited about being new in Seattle, all over again.

“Because we felt they left a few things out, we made this companion version (at what, we imagine, and we’re sure you’ll be able to tell, was a tiny fraction of the cost) to welcome all newcomers to our wonderful city.”

The parody begins: “So a good friend of mine was born and raised in Portland, so I asked him ‘what’s Seattle like?’ and he said ‘I dunno, I was born in Portland’.” Portland is located in the state of Oregon, and is over 170 miles from Seattle - which is in the state of Washington.

The parody continues: “I’m from Southern California, and the thing I like is the opportunity to be outdoorsy.

“Between my condo and the office, I can be outdoors up to two or three times a day.”

Amazon’s attempt to ‘sell’ their hometown to prospective candidates has also been parodied by Seattle-based Hip Hop music producer, Spekulation. His version points at the city's rich-poor divide by using voiceover artists to record over the original audio.