OK ever since Facebook went public they received an injection of funds and as they celebrate their 1 billion (supposedly) active users is to come out with an ad. It is a high concept diatribe, that is very meta. Yeah Facebook is a chair, OK yeah sure let’s go with that, oh wait they’re a doorbell, a dance floor, what are they smoking.
Through the music and the imagery you can tell they want to hit that emotional sweet spot I just don’t think they did it. Facebook is a great platform but there are well-known issues that limit the ability of the platform itself to elicit that type of response.
You don’t get that response from the platform but from the people you connect with through it, me thinks at least for most of us. Recent negative press since their IPO, the decline in value for the stock, and the perpetual issue of privacy are some of the things that keep it from that emotional resonance.
I can see why someone would think this is a good idea on paper but there is a big difference between that and reality. Today Facebook is a tool, the social network but not the only one. Mostly everyone has it, so it has become part of our daily lives. Facebook needed to have fun with the ad, show stories, show the fun that Facebook can be, this ad feels way too meta for me.
The concept of Facebook as a chair and all that doesn’t feel right to me, it feels like they were trying to hard when they should have had some fun with it. Facebook is one way we can tell stories to our friends through our status updates, a way we can share a small slice of our digital life, like what we are reading and liking with people we know.
Show that, 1 billion users doesn’t mean anything to most people, it means your friends are probably on Facebook but it is more important to the advertisers than it is to how we as people use Facebook. You want to relate to the message and instead of meta how about showing those connections that are cultivated using Facebook.
Maybe its an event invite, a funny picture that a friend shared, an article you posted on a friend’s wall cause you know they needed a pick me up. Balance that with the mistakes we have all made when using Facebook, like that person that overshares, or that picture of yourself at the club you didn’t want your family to see.
That feels better because it isn’t perfect, a recognition that we all make mistakes as people and as companies. That could have been powerful, the chair is not, it feels superficial, it takes itself too seriously, sorry Facebook I gotta give this ad a not good. You have to wonder why the ratings and comments were disabled for this YouTube video, or maybe not.