Don’t hijack viewers’ speakers, warns ASA

ADVERTISING companies have been warned against invasive TV commercials that activate voice-controlled gadgets after a Burger King commercial was criticised for hijacking devices in viewers’ living rooms.

A television spot for the fast food chain in the US was designed to trigger voice-activated Google Home speakers into advertising Burger King’s meals.

The 15-second commercial contained the phrase “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?”, which would prompt the internetconnected speakers into reading out a specially written description of the burger from Wikipedia.

After users immediately attacked the move as an invasion of privacy that hijacked their personal devices, Google blocked the devices from recognising the audio recording. Wikipedia has also reverted to the previous description of The Whopper and locked the page.

A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which has the power to ban adverts in the UK, called the commercial potentially irresponsible.

“Although untested, the Advertising Code likely gives us scope to act,” the ASA said. “We’d take a dim view of any UK ad that triggered Google Home or Amazon Echo by intentionally using a ‘wake up’ command, on the basis that it was intrusive and invasive to hijack people’s personal devices in that way.”