Brand Genius Rick Mathieson tweeted about a new Facebook ad:
Aside from wondering why Facebook needs to advertise (and wondering why they aren’t pouring that money into figuring out how to have their advertisers get more ROI), this is just a stupid ad. From Wieden + Kennedy, creators of some seriously iconic advertising, I think the creative directors simply ran out of ideas. I’m guessing this is how the creative meeting went:
Creative Director: (Who has no idea what Facebook is) Okay, so we need an idea for Facebook? What is Facebook?
Underling: Well, Facebook connects people.
CD: On the internet, right? GOOD! That’s very insightful! So how do we show this?
Some Other Underling: We could show things that connect people that are not Facebook.
CD: I LIKE IT! So what else connects people?
U1: (While texting) Well, phones do.
U2: And so does mail, and other types of communication…
U1: The internet! The internet connects people.
U2: Totally. Totally connects people.
CD: NO NO NO! We need something better. Something abstract. Something that puts people in the position to connect. Something that we can show a lot of without spending any money on! Something that will finally get me that damn advertising award I should have easily won since I joined WK.
Random Intern Not Getting Paid: What about chairs?
CD: Huh? Chairs?
(Underlings shoot a death-inducing stare at Intern. Intern wets himself a little bit out of sheer fear, but maintains composure.)
RINGP: Yeah. I mean, like, when we sit at a table, we have chairs, and we gather, and that’s how we connect.
(Long Pause. Creative Director strokes his chin. Underlings all look off in random direction as if they did not hear what the stupid intern just said, because they hate that it’s a good idea and they didn’t think of it, and they can claim ignorance hoping that when the Creative Director kills the intern, they can tell the police that they had no idea the violent murder was about to take place because they were focused on other things, like the wallpaper. Intern wets himself a little more.)
CD: I…LOVE IT! Let’s go with that! Quick, someone go film people in chairs! Let’s get some inspiring music! Let’s get an utterly vague female voice over! And someone GET. ME. SOME. HELVETICA!
At least, that’s how I think it went.
But wait. It gets better. Rick also tweeted this parody:
And so the original ad will be viewed seventy-eleven bajillion times because everyone will find the parodies hilarious (I know I will) and want to see the source material.
I can only hope for three things:
1. Weiden + Kennedy did this on purpose.
2. If so, they win a Clio for it.
3. And they give credit to Andrew Zenn (who created the Toilets one above), and all the other awesome parodies that will follow. Because those will be way better than the dirge that WK created.
