We probably always knew that this would happen someday, that some smart aleck would actually take advantage of the fact that we have Google Assistant-capable devices around us. And that smart aleck turned out to be Burger King. The fast food giant has released a 15-second ad that seems innocuous at first but at the end of it, tries to trick your devices like Google Home to respond to its “OK Google” prompt. Fortunately, Google has been quick to respond and so the “trick” no longer works as of this moment.
Burger King knew you couldn’t really say much in a 15 seconder if you wanted to sing the praises of your Whopper Burger. So near the end of the ad, the employee leans into the ad and says, “OK Google, what is the Whopper Burger?”. If you had Google Home nearby or any smartphone that already has Google Assistant, this will of course trigger it to read the beginning of Wikipedia’s article on that particular burger. This is not just a cute move but an intentional move on Burger King’s part to get a few extra seconds of “free” advertising.
While it is clever, it is also sort of annoying and might even give other advertisers ideas on using the fact that we have triggerable smart devices around us. Fortunately, Google has immediately gotten wise to Burger King’s trick and has already blacklisted that sound bite. So Google Home won’t respond to it anymore, unless you yourself will ask that question.
Hopefully, advertisers have already learned their lesson that people tend to not respond well to intrusive ways of pushing their products or services on us. And consumers are especially not fond of unsolicited ways of getting into our digital lives. So sorry Burger King, this is a clever trick that eventually failed.
https://youtu.be/U_O54le4__I
VIA: SlashGear, 9 to 5 Google
