I was recently alerted to the new Facebook ads that have been launched on an unsuspecting public to celebrate their one billionth account.
OK, so here in the UK we don’t do the heartstring-tugging stuff like our cousins do, but this one is a sure fire winner – of the OMG did they really do that awards variety.
In this homage to its fans, we are invited to see Facebook as being like – wait for it – chairs.
Chairs? What happy-clappy, deranged focus group came up with that?
I can liken Facebook to many things (a chat in the pub, a trip down memory lane – even one of the finest ways to be distracted yet again from pressing work commitments) but why did they go this route? Why the earnest voiceover spouting platitudes like a primary school teacher with a particularly thick class? Why, especially seeing the poor publicity it has received since the float, leave yourself open to the further abuse this will bring?
The problem is that the internet is so bloody good at ridiculing stuff it finds worthy of such that it’s always going to spot a too good to miss target sometimes.
Already a spoof website has been set up here where you can type in your own word to sum up what you think Facebook is like. And believe me, they have come up with image matches that are pretty amusing for all the epithets most people would come up with given their smutty chance. Try it yourself to see.
How many people are going to be putting arelikefacebook.com link on their updates now?
But there’s further hilarity (at FB’s expense) to come… Look what the internet produced yesterday.
So a big thumbs down for what could have been a good trumpet blowing chance to say what Facebook really has achieved.
In contrast, Google Chrome has just produced an ad highlighting its own position in social media. OK it has a fair bit of schmaltz to it (and please someone come up with an alternative to that folksy, acoustic guitar picking soundtrack that seems to be everywhere in an attempt to say ‘home values’) but it’s pleasant enough and gets the message home without you wanting to kick the cat.
Anyway, enough of this. I’m going back to that arelikefacebook.com site to see what other gems I can get on screen.
Dirty words and images in the name of research? I love this job sometimes.
Tags: arelikefacebook.com, Facebook, Google Chrome