Let’s be clear: It is incredibly dangerous to do anything with your phone while you’re driving. You shouldn’t be texting, checking your mail, or swiping through Tinder when you should be focused on all of the people and giant, dangerous machines around you.
But Toyota knows that despite all of the warnings and common sense, some people are just going to chance it anyway. So a new radio ad it’s running in Sweden is taking the choice out of their hands.
You can see the promotional video about the ad below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqZBVTMrgFA
The ad exploits the fact that saying “Hey, Siri” while your iPhone is plugged in will activate Apple’s digital assistant. The commercial proceeds to turn the digital helper against you by ordering it to put your phone into Airplane Mode, which not only keeps you from using it but also deactivates Siri so that you can’t override the lockout with your own voice.
This is a really clever idea, but it’s easy to imagine how some drivers may not see the humor or practicality. It’s possible they’ll just pick up their phones to return them to normal manually, which is exactly the sort of thing that this campaign is trying to prevent.
It isn’t the only time that an ad has affected the viewer or listener’s hardware, but it hasn’t always been intentional. A commercial for Microsoft’s Xbox One entertainment console featuring Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul drew some criticism because Paul’s commands to his onscreen hardware was turning on viewers’ systems. And an infamous spot for pest-control company Orkin that included a too-realistic cockroach crawling across the screen had people pummeling their televisions in futile attempts to kill the virtual pest.
But at least Toyota has its heart in the right place, even though messing with someone’s phone is kind of a dick move regardless of intentions.
Via: Marketing Magazine
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
19 responses to “Toyota radio ad shuts down iPhones because drivers won’t”
More craziness about driving. The only real answer is self driving cars. Tesla has the right idea with auto pilot. Come on everyone else jump on board. The biggest issue in the car is the human behind the wheel.
That won’t help unless everyone has one. My guess is you won’t find many hood rats driving one.
Watch the resurgence of people wanting to buy older cars without all this nanny tech crap that over rides their free will. Self driving cars is probably the worst idea on the planet. Just wait until some people get driven off a cliff when hackers take over the controls. It’s going to happen, just wait.
It would still be less cliff dives then what happens now with drunk or sleepy people. Nothing will be perfect.
Except that now, a person using their phone in a safe manner (like for GPS, with a mount) now has to reach over and reactivate their phone. Not only is it a dick move, but it is creating dangerous situations.
That is absolutely ridiculous, Toyota.
Oh neat! Wonder who’s going to sue first! :-D
Fuck that shit. We are becoming WAY over protective… and this kinda shit could cause far more harm as the user has to physically interact with their phone to turn it on. It also ignores that a lot of us use our phones for GPS.
BTY I was in a car accident where a driver txting smashed into us and i don’t want to begin to tell you how it affected my life … So, if someone goes to turn back on their phone after this ad they are complete idiots and missed the point totally. I’d say we’re not overprotective enough!
And then the person who may just be listening to music or using GPS on their phone is going to reach for it from their centre console or in their purse just to turn it back on. Sounds like a good idea to me…
I sense a lawsuit against Toyota in the near future ;)
Toyota can go —- themselves. None of their damn business.
If this ad stopped your Siri while you’re driving then you are the problem not the ad.
Wow 2015 and people still listening to radio ! Who knew ?
Wow. This may be the most moronic thing I have seen an ad agency create. Did they not take into account:
1. Siri is voice-activated hands-free technology — and they specifically target that. Thus someone using voice to direct Siri is far less likely to be typing and fiddling with the phone than someone who isn’t. So deactivating Siri actually turns-off handsfree/eyes-free mode. Congrats, you actually just deactivated a safety feature on the phone.
2. As mentioned, what is the consequence if someone is using it as a GPS (say, at that moment it’s directing them to an offramp). Not to mention that Toyota is the same company who is basically putting touchscreen control consoles in virtually all it’s own cars that rival the complexity of those on Star Trek. Are they turning off their own Nav system and touchscreen radios they’ve built in for “our safety”?
3. Toyota also makes an eTunes APP FOR THEIR CARS that puts items like Pandora, OpenTable et. all on their aforementioned complex touchscreens. Putting it in airplane mode disables their own tech. And while I agree only the passenger should use those functions in their cars, does their cute ad disable their own dangerously distracting console UI?
I actually wonder, as I know they aren’t in the US so our laws don’t apply, but whether this technically could be legally considered a computer exploit attack by the broadcaster.
This is a major safely issue. Toyota is insane if they are really running these ads.
Some people might not even know (or forget in a panic) how to turn airplane mode off. So if they are in an accident and cannot call for help Toyota is going to be liable for the consequences.
Dude, you are over thinking this big time. Of course there are issues as you mentioned above but they are minuscule to the problems on our roads. Just go talk to a traffic cop! They are simply going to an extreme to make a point about texting, which even yourself agree is a serious problem. And so needs a serious message. And i’d presume this is more about the film they made than the actual radio ad itself.
I don’t see how this would work. First, you have to have your iPhone set to allow “Hi, Siri” to work without pressing the home button. Next, if you allow “Hi, Siri” to work, if you tell Siri to turn on airplane mode, Siri doesn’t do it automatically. It asks, “I will stop working if you turn airplane mode on, are you sure?” So the ad would have to say, “Hi, Siri, turn on airplane mode,” pause long enough for Siri to confirm the request, and then say, “Sure.” I don’t think the success rate would be very high.
Airplane mode = no mobile signal…. I need my phone in the car, and I have steering wheel answer/hangup buttons. Why should I have to put up with such shit from do-gooder nannys ?