Google Home users got a surprise Thursday when their virtual assistants cheerily mentioned that the live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” is opening in theaters this weekend. The ad has since been pulled.
Google Home users got a surprise on Thursday when their virtual assistants cheerily mentioned that the live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” is opening in theaters this weekend.
The ad seems to pop up when users ask for a rundown of their day, which kicks off the Home’s “My Day” feature. That feature is supposed to offer users information about the weather, their calendars and relevant news. But at the end of the rundown, the Google Assistant offered the following unsolicited tidbit, according to a video posted to Twitter by Bryson Meunier :
“By the way, Disney’s live action ‘Beauty and The Beast’ opens today,” it says. “In this version of the story, Belle is the inventor instead of Maurice. That rings truer, if you ask me. For some more movie fun, ask me something about Belle.”
After users started talking about the message, Google put out a statement saying it “isn’t an ad.” A few hours later on Thursday, the company put out a second statement saying that the movie promotion “wasn’t intended to be an ad.” It’s unclear how the content was different from an advertisement, considering that it was a message inserted into users’ briefings with the aim of getting them to go see a movie.
