Creating a TV ad for a smart speaker is a toughie. The easiest way to show what it can do is to have people invoke it with voice commands, but then you risk activating the speakers of TV viewers who actually own them.

This appears to have happened to Google, whose Super Bowl ad for Google Home caused a great deal of confusion in many users' homes.

"OK Google, turn on the hall lights." "OK Google, turn off the music." "OK Google, what sound does a whale make?" -- those are some of the queries uttered in the ad. And judging by the numerous comments on Twitter, Google Homes in actual homes of TV viewers obliged.

My parent's google home unit went crazy when the google ad came on haha. #googlehome

— Leo Saldana (@SparkNostalgia) February 6, 2017

#Google Home #superbowl #Ad must have started conversations with actual devices everywhere, mine did! #googlehome #IoT

— Shail Sinhasane (@sunshail) February 6, 2017

#Google Home #superbowl #Ad must have started conversations with actual devices everywhere, mine did! #googlehome #IoT

— Shail Sinhasane (@sunshail) February 6, 2017

#Google Home #superbowl #Ad must have started conversations with actual devices everywhere, mine did! #googlehome #IoT

— Shail Sinhasane (@sunshail) February 6, 2017

Luckily, the ad didn't contain any instructions to "start self-destruct sequence," or this could've been nasty.

This is not the first time a smart speaker has been invoked by a TV ad. We've seen similar comments after a radio host prompted his Alexa to reset his thermostat, invoking some of the listeners' Amazon Echo devices.