Google shuts down Burger King's cunning TV ad

[HAB911]

Source: The Verge

Apr 12, 2017, 3:32pm EDT

Just under three hours after Burger King unveiled a new advertisement designed to hijack your Google Home to read a long-winded description of its Whopper burger, Google has disabled the functionality. It was fun / horrifying while it lasted!

As of 2:45PM ET, Google Home will no longer respond when prompted by the specific Burger King commercial that asks “What is the Whopper burger?” It does, however, still respond with the top result from Wikipedia when someone else (i.e., a real user) other than the advertisement asks the same question. Google has likely registered the sound clip from the ad to disable unwanted Home triggers, as it does with its own Google Home commercials.

After the ad debuted at 12PM ET today, many users have edited the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper, adding a slew of troll-tastic descriptions including “cancer-causing,” “a chocolate candy” (in reference to the Hershey candy) and ingredients like “toenail clippings” and “rat.” Briefly, some users were able to get their Google Homes to respond with the edited entries (as did we, in a test yesterday). Wikipedia has now locked the entry, allowing changes to be made only by authorized administrators.

Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/12/15277278/google-home-burger-king-whopper-ad-campaign

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designed to hijack your Google Home

[Warren DeMontague]

1. ...

[HAB911]

2. I already boycott BK

one of those companies that became Canadian to dodge taxes

[Warren DeMontague]

3. I stopped eating a lot of things around the time I quit booze.

Not entirely coincidentally, either.

i dont even eat red meat anymore; It's probably been 20 years since Ive had a fast food burger, but if I was gonna suddenly decide to do that I would probably go with in n out.

[HAB911]

4. truthfully i eschew all fast food

I admire you on both the booze and red meat

[Warren DeMontague]

5. The toughest part of it is, I still cook a mean steak.

Makes it all the more appalling to have that Philistine in the oval office who eats the damn things cooked into the ground. Bleh.

Dont miss the booze at all, though. An occasional hit of legal weed is far superior and better for my mind and body, from my perspective anyway.

[HAB911]

6. I totally agree with that

even though I haven't smoked any in 20 years

[csziggy]

10. Well before they became Canadian, I stopped going to BK

When they still advertised "Have it Your Way."

There was a BK that was on my way home and I'd go through the drive through to order their junior bacon cheese burger, no pickles. That was the extent of my customization. FIVE times in a row when I got home and got ready to eat my burger, I found over a dozen pickles on my sandwich. Checking the receipts, every single one was correct for the order and indicated NO PICKLES.

After the second time when I ordered I mentioned that previously I had been given a large number of pickles. The clerk taking the order acknowledged that complaint and even commented that they would make sure I got no pickles. Sure enough, there were a large number of pickles on the sandwich - AGAIN.

Next time I asked for the manager and told them about the repeated problem. I STILL got pickles. Being a glutton for punishment I tried reverse psychology and asked for extra pickles. There were more pickles by volume than meat on THAT sandwich.

I gave up and have never been to a Burger King since. It made eat slightly healthier at the time since the BK was the only drive thru on my way home and it was easier to simply go home and make something from scratch.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

12. Wow!

See what happens when you make a big dill out of something?

[csziggy]

13. LOL!

[Achilleaze]

7. Unfair. Whoppers are the official Bullshit Burger of the KGOP.

Sad. google & the press & the world are being unfair to republican draft dodgers. Again. Like always. Wahhhh.

[BigOleDummy]

8. I'll never see ...

.... anything like that as I don't use Google for anything. Not search, not browser nothing. While I do eat fast food on a regular basis it's not usually Burger King but that's just a personal choice.

[keithbvadu2]

9. Miserable SOBs taking over your computer... No better than any other spam.

Miserable SOBs taking over your computer.

No better than any other spam.

[ailsagirl]

11. I never go to Burger King anyway

They don't have very good burgers

[MurrayDelph]

14. I have been to them on more than one occasion

Their food is lousy, but their bathrooms are adequate (I travel by car a lot)

And I'm still mad they took over Tim Horton's.

[miyazaki]

15. Ever since they switched to those space station looking flash cookers

to zap their injected patties I stopped going. The flavor is gone. Actually I never went there that much in the first place. Of course way back in the day a lot of fast food was pretty good for what it was.

[Initech]

16. And this is why I will never stop using ad blockers..

And sites that make me turn them off - fuck you!