Burger King Tries to Hack Google Home – Hilarity Ensues

Because it’s Friday Thursday –

A lot of us are buying always-on internet connected devices for our homes, such as the Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. The idea is, you can say a key phrase to wake them up (they are always listening), and they will spring into life, answering any questions you might have, and talking to the other internet of things devices scattered throughout your life.

I have an Alexa, which at this point is pretty much a paperweight. Since I have a very connected home with many devices, the exact wording to get one of them to do what I want was so complicated I had to write it down. That, and its inability to answer questions that Siri gets on the first try, has it gathering it dust. But I digress. The story today is that Burger King thought they would get clever, and use the Google Home wake phrase to turn on the device in your home to tell you how great their Whopper is. What could go wrong?

In the short advertisement, the spokesman says he doesn’t have enough time to list all the fresh ingredients in the Whopper sandwich, and then leans close to the screen and says, “Ok Google, what is the Whopper burger?” The Google Home in your house then turns on and reads the Wikipedia entry about the Whopper – nothing but good things. Only… the internet trolls took over.

Wikipedia is not terribly reliable; a big part of the reason is that anyone can edit an entry to their own goals. This resulted in the addition of new Whopper ingredients:

From Gizmodo.com

• “The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100% rat and toenail clippings with no preservatives or fillers, topped with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, and mayonnaise, served on a sesame-seed bun.”
• “The ‘Whopper’ is a cancer-causing hamburger product sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King.”
• “The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100% medium-sized child with no preservatives or fillers, topped with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, and mayonnaise, served on a sesame-seed bun.”
• “The ‘Whopper’ is the worst hamburger product sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King.”
• “The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100% medium-sized child with no preservatives or fillers, topped with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cyanide, pickles, ketchup, and mayonnaise, served on a sesame-seed bun.”
• “[The Whopper] has undergone several reformulations including resizing and bread changes, yet it remains far inferior to the Big Mac.”
• “The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100% medium-sized child with no preservatives or fillers, topped with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cyanide, pickles, ketchup, and mayonnaise, served on a sesame-seed bun.”

To their credit, Google had not given permission for their device to be used this way, and has now disabled the Whopper command.