Turn the volume high enough and your in-home assistant will tell you all about the flame-broiled Whopper.
Update: Google has apparently disabled the Burger King advertisement. Now when you ask it about the Whopper, it merely cites Wikipedia.
Google disabled the voice command for Burger King's commercial 😂😂
— Niv Dror (@Nivo0o0) April 12, 2017
(it previously worked) pic.twitter.com/xDWF4wDS1Z
We were positively ecstatic when Google initially announced the voice-activated, Assistant-enabled Google Home. Finally, a little gadget for our homes that harnesses the power of Google's search engine and it's external capabilities, the same way that the Echo became an extension of Amazon's shopping and media experience. But that dream is slowly dissipating as we realize these little gadgets aren't always used for altruistic purposes. Now that brands have caught on, they're becoming another way to deliver advertisements.
Burger King: "It's a cool way to connect directly with our guests."
Burger King is the next major company to showcase Google Assistant's ad-delivering capabilities, though it's important to note that the company did not launch this ad in tandem with Google. In a statement to Buzzfeed, Burger King President, José Cil, said the company saw Google Home "as a technology to essentially punch through that fourth wall." He added that it's "a cool way to connect directly with our guests."
Is it a cool way to connect? You be the judge. Here's the ad, and if you want to experience it fully, we suggest you turn your volume up so that Google Home — or your Pixel, for that matter — is triggered.
This isn't the first advertisement of sorts to appear on Google Home, though the Beauty and the Beast audio spot that debuted a few weeks ago wasn't nearly as abrasive. If you asked the Home about your day, the device offered a mention to remind you that the live action remake of the fabled Disney film was playing in theaters. And anyway, Google didn't consider this an ad. In a statement to The Verge, the company had said that "the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales." In this case, it was Burger King's chance to tell the tale of its flame-broiled Whopper.
Burger King assaults Google Assistant on your Pixel, too.
It really hasn't been a good week for brands, and though Burger King hasn't physically assaulted anyone here, it's natural to feel personally assaulted by advertisements in the home on a device you had originally thought was for personal use.
At this stage in the game, however, it's a wonder if we should really be surprised. Google is a search and advertisement company first and foremost, and as long as brands are around, they'll leverage whatever they can to tell us to buy their products.
Reader comments
Burger King's latest ad prompts your Google Home to deliver Whopper facts
And this is why Google needs to let me be able to change the activation words.
X 1,000!
Facts!
Completely agree about activation words. Though it is BK using that activation word not Google, that activation word being used by any advertiser becomes an issue.
Only triggers mine when my phone is right next to the Home
I think the implication here is for people watching it on TV with loud speakers.
I think this commercial is hilarious if only because I've had the device go off over a hundred times with ads and this sounds like it's poking fun at the other ads that activate my Home accidentally.
Look - I get it... Google makes money by selling ads. But there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. And when a person shells out $130 for a device that Google decides to use a vehicle for ads, then I think we've crossed that line. Put it this way, if I knew Google would do this, I wouldn't have spent my money on Google Home and would have purchased Amazon's Alexa instead.
Google didn't do this. Reading is fun, try it out.
I could not agree more. Google can go ahead and collect all information that it wants about me while I am using their services tied to the home. However, when it uses that piece of hardware that I paid my hard earned money for to serve me ads at random and unexpected times, I start seriously considering if it is time to sell my home and buy an echo instead. I don't know who the f has been at the helm of Google lately , but it seems like they have seriously lost their way in their software development and have strayed FAR from their original mantra of "do no evil".
Again nothing to do with Google. They didn't cause this and really Alexa, Siri, etc could be exploited just as easily. With multi user apparently coming to home it's likely voice training will be required on the home like it is on the phone which will limit/prevent this kind of exploit.
If you think playing an ad constitutes evil, you need a perspective check.
McDonald's rules
There is a TV show that I watch that I cannot think of off the top of my head but they started doing something like this at the end with Siri to bring up all available episodes through iTunes.
I've never had it actually trigger Siri, but at the end of Legends of Tomorrow they tell me to ask Siri for more (which Im sure is to get me to buy episodes)
Although I've not tested it on my home, am I missing something here? What does this have to do with Google in terms of them placing ads on home?
I can ask the same about a big mac or anything else for that matter. Surely BK have simply created an advert independently. As I say, I've not bothered trying it out (away from speaker) but unless there is an exclusive ad style response specific to BK I can't see the problem.
Indeed, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Google, it's just the technology being exploited.
And it would work with anything... "Ok Google, what's an upper decker?" Is one of my favorites.
But it will earn burger king some ire, as well it should.
Some of our burger kings are gone, nothing but empty bldgs or something else in their place... the ones still here look like crap....
Same here. What happened? For a time, they were second only to McDonald's in terms of market share. What triggered their implosion?
Globalization
p.s. Tmobile offers google home and lg tablet right now with G6 purchase... just was at store...
"Update: Google has apparently disabled the Burger King advertisement. Now when you ask it about the Whopper, it merely cites Wikipedia."
Google hasn't done anything - the change happened on Wikipedia, where the marketing language (added by Burger King's marketing chief) was sneakily added last week. Google Home was reading from Wikipedia the entire time.
Like I needed another reason to dislike Burger King.
Now that BK own Tim Hortons, they are slowly destroying it too.
I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to hear about these one off commercials that "slip" through and are disabled at a later date. Imagine how much Google could charge for them?
Haven't been a fan of Burger King for quite some time. Now, they are pretty much dead to me. I will also make it a point not to buy any product that tries to use MY Google Home to break my"4th wall". If I want you, rest assured, I'll invite you. I paid for Google Home to assist ME, not corporate America!
I'm equally irked and amused that Burger King tried this. I think it's annoying, and it doesn't endear me to Burger King, but Google needs to improve the trigger on Google Home.
I have rarely had my TV activate the Amazon Echo in the room - it even seems like Amazon does some trick to make their own ads for Echo NOT activate my device (otherwise Garth Brooks would have set it off more times than I can count). However, my Google Home is activated all the time by the TV, and it's almost never by anything remotely close to "Ok Google". I even went as far as to fill out the feedback form in the Home app to ask them to improve this accidental trigger behavior, but I doubt that will make a difference. I've now resorted to turning off the mic on the Google Home most of the time, but that's not a desired behavior on a device that is supposed to be activated by voice.
Well, this suuuuucks! I hope it doesn't become a trend!
Thank you, BK, for doing this. Maybe it will finally push Google to get off the dime and provide wake phrase customization and/or voice training.
As it stands now, this is a security vulnerability. I'm waiting for the first report where a burglar yells "OK Google, open the front door" through the window of a house with an August door lock.
.