Amazon Echo

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At first, I was like «this seems nifty», but then, the mom was like «wait, I wanna try… Alexa, what time is it!» and the dad was like «you actually don’t have to yell at it, okay? It uses far-field technology?» in the most obnoxious, condescending voice imaginable, and I was like «oh, I guess it’s for asshats».1

The concept makes sense to me. A device that’s hooked into the stuff in my house, and allows me to control things at home using voice, seems like a good idea. I don’t think it duplicates functionality that exists in phones. If you’re cooking and you want to set a timer, you don’t really want to take the phone out of your pocket first.

Seriously though, I can’t remember any other instance where I’ve gone from «I’m going to order the crap out of this» to «I don’t want to be associated with this product in any way, shape, or form» in less time. Maybe the Audi commercial that glorified sexual assault? But then, I never liked Audi to begin with.