One of the most popular cartoons I ever drew was about the Internet of Things, right after Google announced the acquisition of Nest in early 2014.
“I think my Nest smoke alarm is going off,” one character tells another. “Google Adwords just pitched me a fire extinguisher and an offer for temporary housing.”
iRobot later proved that truth is stranger than fiction when photos taken in homes by a beta version of its Roomba vacuum robot somehow ended up on Facebook in late 2022, including a photo of someone on the toilet.
Yet the drumbeat to “Smartify” just about every product by connecting it to the Internet has only accelerated in the AI era. The latest is a “Smart Toilet” with an in-bowl camera from Kohler that analyzes photos and connects findings to a health app.
Some of these products have true utility. But the question is whether the advantages outweigh the drawbacks, particularly in privacy, security, and the cost to repair. There are inherent vulnerabilities of having so many products connected to the Internet.
A few years ago, a casino business was hacked through an Internet-connected fish tank Smart Thermometer in the hotel lobby.
In October, Smart Mattresses from Eight Sleep crashed during the Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage in the middle of the night. Some got stuck at an extreme incline. Others readjusted the sleeping temperatures to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
CES debuts many of the Smart Products that come to market. An organization called The Repair Association started to give out “Worst in Show” awards for the “The Most Overengineered, Unrepairable, and Unsustainable Tech Disasters at CES.”
This year’s “Who Asked for This?” award was given to Samsung for a Smart Washing Machine that makes phone calls, requiring unnecessary screens and microphones (which can break faster at a higher cost). As they put it, it’s an example of “force feeding useless smart features, all just to be able to take a phone call from a washing machine.”
When so many smart products seem to be jumping the shark, I think there’s an opportunity for brands to go the other way. As BBH once put it in a Levi’s ad, “zig when others zag.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
