Toyota radio ad shuts down iPhones because drivers won’t

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Toyota Siri radio ad
Oh, Toyota. You puckish tricksters.
Photo: Toyota

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

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