Entertainment

The Google Home Commercial Song Sounds Familiar

YouTube/screenshot

If you were watching Google's heartwarming commercial for Google Home during the Super Bowl and you said, "Hey, I know that song. Why do I know that song? What is that?" you were not wrong. Google used John Denver's classic tune, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" for their Super Bowl spot.

The commercial starts out with people living their lives — returning home, gathering for parties, making dinner — and showing how seamlessly a Google Home can fit into, well, your home. Ask it questions! Talk to it! Have it help out during reading time with your child! I admit that I do use mine for recipe substitutions, too.

Using a song like "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and jingle-fying it is smart by Google for two reasons. The first is that people know the song and even though it's been updated, it still feels like something you can remember and automatically bond with. The second is that because people know the song, they could possibly have a memory with the song, they could be more likely to remember the Google Home. It's the brand-new and the familiar, and it's all in one place. Hell, it can even be in your home.

My favorite part of the commercial, though, is that it shows a large swath of American life. The people used in the commercial are very different from each other — gay, straight, white, Asian, male, female, etc. — but they all have the same idea of home. Home is somewhere you can gather, somewhere you can hang out, and somewhere you can ask Google Home all the hard questions.