Hal, Tell Them About Doritos

Burger King got into the news recently because of a clever but dickish ad. The ad has someone saying, "OK, Google, what is the Whopper burger?" As you may know, "OK Google" is the phrase used to get the attention of Google-based products, like Android phones (For you Apple types, it's the equivalent of addressing a question to Siri.)

Of course, that means that any Google products in hearing range will be activated, and go to a page on the Whopper. Google responded by changing the programming to recognize that particular sound clip and not respond to it. And, just to underline that Burger King is subversive/tone-deaf, they re-recorded the clip to get around Google's response.

In case you're wondering, yes, it is possible to change the phrase to something else on your Google products, so this won't happen. I'm reminded that in the sci-fi book, Old Man's War, there are personal assistants built into people's heads, and most people find it so intrusive that they choose profane names to address it with. That would solve your problem: just use one of the words you can't say in TV.

It seems to me that there's a learning-curve for everyone when it comes to new technology and media, where we all learn about what is going to be considered acceptable. In the early World Wide Web, there was a company - I think it was Pepsi - who programmed their web page to record the e-mail address of everyone who came to the site. Today, it's hard to believe that a company wouldn't know that would blow up in their face, or that we were so naive about privacy that a Web browser would give out your info to whoever asked. When people found out, there were complaints, they stopped the e-mail trawl.

But the other similarity in these two incidents is that it came from exactly who you would expect it from. For all their imperfections, it's hard to imagine McDonald's pushing the limits of acceptable use of technology like this. But Burger King and Pepsi are both playing the role of the brash upstart in their business duels. Of course they'd be the one to push the limits to far. Coke isn't going to offend everyone by trying to appeal to woke youngsters, but Pepsi would. In the book, Infinite Jest, where years are named after their sponsors, it's mentioned that the first such year was the Year of the Whopper. And that made total sense; of course they were the first ones to buy a year. They always will be.