Not so intelligent now! Google Home's Super Bowl ad makes 'smart speaker' devices across America go crazy

  • The Google Home smart speakers answer questions and control home devices
  • They are activated when the user says 'OK Google' followed by their request
  • The Super Bowl ad featured several 'OK Google' requests, triggering devices
  • One user thought his home was being broken into after his speaker activated 

By James Wilkinson For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:07 EST, 6 February 2017 | Updated: 12:18 EST, 6 February 2017

The Google Home speakers might be intelligent, but it seems that their advertisers are dim bulbs after a misguided Super Bowl ad led to devices across the country going crazy.

The speakers also act as a voice-activated hub for home devices and a hands-free search engine for users. All they need to say is 'OK Google' followed by their request.

Naturally, the Super Bowl ad tried to show off the device's cool voice functionality - and in doing so, it activated Google Home devices within earshot of their TVs, USA Today reported.

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Smart talk: The Google Home (pictured) is a voice-activated 'smart speaker' that can answer questions and control home devices - it is activated when a user says 'OK Google'

Smart talk: The Google Home (pictured) is a voice-activated 'smart speaker' that can answer questions and control home devices - it is activated when a user says 'OK Google'

Outspoken: The Google Home Super Bowl ad (pictured) features families using the device with the 'OK Google' password - causing viewers' devices to react in turn

Outspoken: The Google Home Super Bowl ad (pictured) features families using the device with the 'OK Google' password - causing viewers' devices to react in turn

'Freaked out': This user thought he was being robbed after the Super Bowl ad turned on the Google Home in his kitchen. Many users reported similar problems on Twitter

'Freaked out': This user thought he was being robbed after the Super Bowl ad turned on the Google Home in his kitchen. Many users reported similar problems on Twitter

The advert shows people across the US coming together as they ask their smart speakers a series of questions.

'OK Google - what's a good substitute for cardamom?'

'OK Google - what sound does a whale make?'

'OK Google - what's the weather?' 

Of course, the repeated refrain of 'OK Google' led to nearby devices trying to help the fictional families out - to the amusement and annoyance of Twitter users.

'Google Home was saying "sorry, I don't understand" to the TV in response to the #GoogleHome #SuperBowl commercial,' wrote James Thomas. 'Not quite there yet.'

'Hahah #GoogleHome commercial made my lights dim....' chuckled Dylan Schmoldt.

'The @Google Home #Superbowl commercial just totally confused our poor #googlehome who dutifully tried to answer all questions,' wrote Johanna Rehnvall.

But others were less amused.

A Twitter user with the name 'Luke, you're my...' wrote: 'Thanks Google. My Google home that I already purchased just had a mental breakdown trying to respond to your commercial.'

And Tom Quinn had a worse experience: 'That #GoogleHome commercial just made my GH device go off in my kitchen. Freaked me the f**k out. Thought I was being robbed.'

Dim: At the end of the advert, a group of people planning a surprise birthday party tell Google Home to dim the lights - having the same effect on this user's home setup

Dim: At the end of the advert, a group of people planning a surprise birthday party tell Google Home to dim the lights - having the same effect on this user's home setup

Breakdown: Other Google Homes simply couldn't deal with the barrage of requests in the advert, including this user's, which had a 'mental breakdown'

Breakdown: Other Google Homes simply couldn't deal with the barrage of requests in the advert, including this user's, which had a 'mental breakdown'

Google isn't the only smart speaker company to come a cropper thanks to an ill-thought-out ad.

Its rival, the Amazon Echo, suffered a similar malfunction in January, according to The Verge. 

A young girl in Dallas, Texas, asked the Echo - which is activated using the name of its, AI, Alexa - to buy her a dollhouse and cookies, which it dutifully did, using her parents' Amazon account. 

Unfortunately, an anchor on San Diego’s CW6 News commented on the story shortly afterward: 'I love the little girl, saying "Alexa ordered me a dollhouse."'

The station received a series of calls from viewers saying that their Echos had made dollhouse purchases of their own.

Work to be done: This user thinks the Google Home needs more development, as it became confused by the Super Bowl ad

Work to be done: This user thinks the Google Home needs more development, as it became confused by the Super Bowl ad

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