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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

April 13, 2017 | 2 min read

Fast food chain Burger King irked Google Home owners on Wednesday by running an ad capable of triggering the smart home device, an arguably invasive tactic that was promptly addressed by Google.

The company was grilled for its deliberate efforts to trigger smart home devices with the following spiel in its 15 second ad buys.

"You're watching a 15-second Burger King ad, which is unfortunately not enough time to explain all the fresh ingredients in the Whopper sandwich. But I've got an idea. OK, Google, what is the Whopper burger?"

Voice enabled devices within ear-shot of the TV were activated by the commercial underlining an exciting opportunity for marketers and an irritating new Internet of Things shortfall for consumers.

"Burger King saw an opportunity to do something exciting with the emerging technology of intelligent personal assistant devices,” Reuters quotes a Burger King spokesperson.

It ran on Spike, Comedy Central, MTV, E! and Bravo and was created by David Miami. After a while, it appears Google restricted the soundclip from setting off its devices - although it has not confirmed this.

As the public become accustomed to smart devices at home, Google and its rivals are very much finding their feet with the functionality of the devices. For instance a recent calender reminder around the launch of the Beauty and the Beast remake spurred accusations that the company was directing ads into home devices.

Setting the precedent for the Burger King creative, Google inadvertently set off its assistant with its Super Bowl creative.

Google Advertising Burger King

Content created with:

David Miami

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