Google Home and other devices that use the “OK Google” trigger phrase have a nasty tendency to activate when an advertisement uses the phrase “OK Google”, and it looks like Burger King is cashing in on this with a new ad that essentially forces your smart device(s) to do the heavy lifting for the fast food company. The unique advertisement makes nearby devices pull up search results related to the Whopper, letting viewers’ devices sell them on Burger King’s flagship product, rather than having an employee do so in a more conventional manner.
The ad is pretty simple on the surface; an anonymous Burger King employee tells you that the ad you’re watching is too short to be able to adequately extol the virtues of the Whopper. Instead of leaving it at that and letting the curious do their own research, the employee beckons the camera closer, then tries to activate the viewer’s various smart devices and get them to do the advertising by saying, “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?” He doesn’t give much pause between the trigger phrase and the question for older devices to catch up, but newer phones and Google Home units should end up doing just as they’re asked to do. Devices that activate as the commercial wants them to will show the viewer what’s in a Whopper and why they probably want one right now by pulling up relevant search results; there’s no special partner content in Google that’s tied to the ad.
While a decent number of people out there will tell you that it would take more than fifteen seconds to tell somebody how good a Whopper is, hijacking nearby smart devices is a pretty novel tactic for an advertisement, and one that’s likely to rustle at least a few feathers. Ads using “OK Google” in some form is a fairly common thing, especially among Google ads. This commercial, however, is one of the first that actually tries to activate peoples’ devices, perhaps even the first one period. Whether that actually becomes a commonplace tactic will likely depend on how well this ad does. Code found in the newest version of the Google App suggests that setting up multiple voices is coming soon, which could mean excluding unregistered voices and squashing exploits like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_O54le4__I