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A well-known fast food chain \u2013 let\u2019s call them Kurger Bing \u2013 is debuting a new 15 second ad today<\/a> set to start running nationally. It starts off simply enough, some dude standing behind the counter of an otherwise empty \u201crestaurant,\u201d addressing the camera. He explains that he doesn\u2019t have the time to fully explain an iconic hamburger to you. Ad time isn\u2019t cheap, even for a successful fast food joint. So he\u2019s got an idea.<\/p>\n He\u2019s going to use your smart home assistant. Google Home<\/a>, in this case. \u201cOK Google,\u201d he addresses the camera, asking a question designed to trigger devices across the country, reading the first few sentences of the foodstuff\u2019s Wikipedia entry.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a massive monolith of company that paid an ad agency a lot of money for a spot that\u2019s \u201cinteractive\u201d and \u201ccool,\u201d playing on the announces of countless people who\u2019ve had Echo triggered by Amazon commercials, not to mention the apparent waking nightmare<\/a> that is the life of anyone named Alexa over the past couple of years. The company tipped me off beforehand, hoping I\u2019d be equally excited.<\/p>\n Can we just nip this whole thing in the bud right now?<\/p>\n The ad is an inevitability. Someone was bound to get there, and the folks at Kurger Bing beat everyone to the punch. For the company, it\u2019s a way to extend advertising beyond the screen. Between Kendall Jenner ending police violence with a can of sugar water, United executing the literal manifestation of how we all kind of feel about air travel and Sean Spicer, well, being Sean Spicer, the ad campaign likely won\u2019t even register a blip on anyone\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n At best, it\u2019s really annoying for people with the device in their living room. At worst, it once again raises some nagging questions about technological limitations and privacy concerns surrounding these smart assistants.<\/p>\n For starters, there\u2019s the issue of the tech limitations of such a device. It seems we\u2019re still a ways away from smart assistants that are capable of distinguishing voices from one another, and the ad plays on that limitation.<\/p>\n And while I\u2019m sure the company and its connected ad agency have no malicious intent beyond selling some hamburgers, this limitation becomes a larger concern the more pieces of our life we turn over to these devices. Increasingly things like door locks and other potential security threats.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like some early 21st<\/sup> century version of Soupy Sales\u2019 infamous plea<\/a> for kids around the country to reaching into their parents wallets and grab the \u201cgreen paper\u201d from their parents wallets, it\u2019s also a sort of cautionary tale about the power of advertising mixed with technology.<\/p>\n The company won\u2019t say precisely why they opted for Home over its far more ubiquitous Amazon counterpart, but it did confirm that wasn\u2019t involved in the spot. And while Google\u2019s read plays like an off-screen continuation of the commercial, it\u2019s simple reading a couple of sentences from Wikipedia. I suspect the user-supported dictionary wasn\u2019t looking to get involved with a hamburger commercial either. And given its open-source nature, this kind of TV\/smart device forced synergy is opening the door for some Wiki-based prankery.<\/p>\n The ad\u2019s not fun or cute. It\u2019s not Pizza Hut shoes<\/a> or McDonald\u2019s VR headset<\/a>. It\u2019s annoying, and hopefully an opportunity for people to give a second though to the role of TV and always-listening smart home assistants in their lives. Maybe it\u2019s a small piece of vindication for poor, tormented women named Alexa. And hopefully it\u2019s a chance for the makers of smart home assistants to rethink the way they listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/img_2492.jpg?w=680\")
A well-known fast food chain – let’s call them Kurger Bing – is debuting a new 15 second ad today set to start running nationally. It starts off simply enough, some dude standing behind the counter of an otherwise empty “restaurant,” addressing the camera. He explains that he doesn’t have the time to fully explain an iconic hamburger to you. Ad time… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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