Remember when we tackled that MySpace trailer talking about its new design and such? Well, the next week Facebook decided to release their own commercial, if you can call it that. Coming out just after their announcement of 1 billion active users, it could easily be read as a battle cry to claim the other 5 billion on this planet.
Let’s start with the obvious: does Facebook even need a commercial? It seems to be doing pretty well so far by word of mouth.
Facebook can be seen as one of the first Internet fads to grip the real world as well. Just think of how many advertisements you see that say, “Like us on Facebook.”
That’s the focus for this 90-second audio-visual conglomeration: things in the real world that are like Facebook, somehow.
We start with a beautiful montage of chairs; people lounging on them, dancing on them and kids unsafely playing with them in the street.
And now the punchline: “Chairs are for people, and that is why chairs are like Facebook.”
What?
Technically, the video is correct. Chairs are for people, but since people are the dominant species on this planet, so is pretty much everything else.
And that’s exactly where the video goes from there. Naming off other random things that connect people or bring them together, like bridges, airplanes and basketball. Apparently they’ve never been to a U.T. vs. A&M game.
One of the huge things I think this video leaves out, however, is the ground. People who don’t have access to chairs sit on the ground and interact with other people on the ground with them. There’s also a gravitational force pulling us there constantly. Therefore the ground is like Facebook.
One of the last few Facebook comparisons we hear about is a “great nation.” Given all the buzz coming out about how Facebook uses your information to become an advertising juggernaut, it seems eerily appropriate. And like any great nation, they could easily take over the world!
Our last comparison is the universe, and how all of these random, aforementioned things remind us that we are not alone in it. Do you hear that, extraterrestrial lifeforms? After you destroy the earth, be sure to post about it on your Facebook timeline. Zuckerberg’s ghost will like it.
This commercial, or whatever it is, doesn’t really seem to know what it’s trying to do. I’m sure many people will continue to join Facebook, but it won’t be because of this video. On the plus side, it’s very easy to make parodies of. Just think of how many things are “like Facebook.”
