Facebook debuted its first ad campaign ten days ago to celebrate its one billion user milestone. The ad has been ridiculed and parodied for it’s confusing and overwrought story centered on the message, “Chairs are like Facebook”. It’s one of the more inadvertently hilarious pieces of marketing communication I’ve seen.
My favorite spoof so far is arelikefacebook.com, a site that lets you pick random words to automatically generate a Facebook ad.
It is ironic that the poster brand for social would lead with such a self-indulgent advertisement. The spot is expensively produced by the director of Babel and obviously shot in several different countries. It tries to tug at the heart strings and completely misses the mark. After chairs, the spot moves on to the cosmos: “The universe. It is vast. And dark. And makes us wonder if we are alone.”
Many brands take themselves too seriously, particularly in emotional advertising. The Facebook ad is a reminder to marketers not to be so full of ourselves.
Google Chrome faced a similar challenge as Facebook. It needed to bring emotion to technology and communicate how they transform the lives of their audiences. But rather than abstract tedious analogies, Google shared stories.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away one signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. I’ll pick one comment. Thanks!)