It will not be winning any Grammys anytime soon but Google Assistant keeps giving us some ditties, if you ask for it. We’ve gotten holiday songs for Halloween and Christmas, and COVID-related tunes to remind us to wear a mask and to wash our hands. Now that we’re in the vaccination phase of the pandemic (well, at least for some countries), it’s expected that we’ll get a vaccine song. Sure enough, when you say “Hey Google, sing the vaccine song”, that’s exactly what you’ll get.
Convincing people to get whatever vaccine is available now can be both easy and difficult. It’s easy for those who have been waiting for this and those who believe in science, and those can’t wait to get back to “normal”. It’s difficult for so many reasons, political, spiritual, and otherwise. Google is hoping that its digital assistant can somewhat help in convincing people to get vaccinated by creating a corny song that says vaccines are safe and that the scientists who worked on them are “superheroes”.
Again, it’s not an earworm or even a good song with a good melody. But it does send out the message that Google wants to impart on how important vaccines are and why we need to get this to “help us bring a change to this old routine.” Google seems to be enjoying making these musical easter eggs that can be triggered to play on any device that supports Google Assistant. When they have enough songs under their belt, we might even get a YouTube Music playlist.
This isn’t the first vaccination message that Google has created. Recently, they released a video ad that gave out the same message. But instead of a sentimental music video, they gave us the traditional Google Search-type of ad, highlighting words we’ve gotten familiar with the past year like quarantine, social distancing, etc and then the words slowly getting erased or replaced, showing life slowly getting back to normal if more people get vaccinated.
While most people may find it corny, at least this new Google Assistant jingle can be informative and may convince those who are on the fence. Just say “Hey Google, play the vaccine song” if you want to hear it or check out the recorded video in Android Police.