Facebook's first commercial.

Chairs are like Facebook. So, apparently, are doorbells. And basketball.

I actually love the spirit of this and the final line ("So maybe the reason we make all these things, is to remind us that we're not [alone].") but they totally lose me with the mixed metaphors.

Not to mention you can't "make" basketball.

I wonder what the motivation was to make that.

Are they trying to improve their image with people? Seem less creepy? Just remind people that Facebook is still there and they should check in?

To celebrate 1B. Blog post from Zuck:

"Celebrating a billion people is very special to me. It's a moment to honor the people we serve.

For the first time in our history, we've made a brand video to express what our place is on this earth."

Haha. Obviously the chair has a parody account. It tweeted at me. I added it.

I was underwhelmed. They could have made a tear jerker.

Chairs aren't particularly natural. It's much more natural to squat, stand, or lie and we only really started using chairs in households during the mid to late 1700s.

I would think facebook would want to promote "connection" as a natural extension of the offline human experience. Chairs, at least to me, aren't particularly natural. I would have been more interested in seeing the ways facebook is changing the world.

For instance, I would have had a much more visceral reaction to a highschool student in Hawaii connecting with one in Bosnia. Having their comments translated and then puzzling over each other's syntax. You could show them video chatting and smiling at each other.

To me that's a more powerful message than "facebook is this thing that reminds you that you're not alone". I already know that because I use facebook like the other 15% of the people on the planet.

I do really like the vague references to the universe and stuff though.

Sorry for the double post.

To be honest, I actually think Chairs is a great metaphor for their product. It's a thing that enables you to connect with other people But they should have left it there. When they started talking about Dance Floors and Doorbells and the Universe being vast and dark things just got weird.

The way I read it, I think they're trying to make a statement:

"Facebook is as universal and fundamental as a chair or doorbell. It's not the social network of the moment. It is THE social network."

But, as I pointed out above, the chair isn't universal or fundamental at all... Nor is the doorbell. Human faces are something we all sort of relate too though no matter what our cultural background.

You have a point, Randall. I guess I just don't find a student in Hawaii connecting with a student in Bosnia that powerful. I mean, I do, but that's the power of the Internet, in general – not Facebook, specifically. I think the claim that Facebook is as fundamental as chairs is a much more powerful (and bold) assertion.

The parodies have started:

@Josh - The chair isn't awful. Problem is, one chair — singular, alone — is actually a great metaphor for the individual. Not groups or connections. It's the table that gives chairs — plural, together — an excuse to be there. (No surprises: I really like our origins in "Roundtable.")

My biggest problem with it — and the reason I find it so amusingly tone deaf — is what Randall already hit on: the chair and *ESPECIALLY* the doorbell are not universal. Relatively speaking, the first 1 billion were easy for Facebook. There are huge access problems to solve before many of the next 6 billion even become an addressable market, and you don't have to look far for scary statistics about world hunger and poverty. Just seems like such a disconnect.

But chairs are universal to this ad's audience. I doubt they'll be playing this ad in Indian slums anytime soon.

Agreed, Josh, on shit getting weird when they started introducing the doorbells and the universe in a really flat, emotionless tone.

(Most) chairs are made to be still, to rest. I don't like the metaphor, you can't suggest your users that your service has something to do with a still object. I understand the effort of being familiar, cozy and "daily" like a chair., but they lost me.

And about the "we're not [alone]" thing, for me it feels like Facebook is shooting their own foot. Opposite to other social networks, Facebook has proven to help long distance human relationship and harm realtionship between people near each other.

How many times have you seen those Facebook friends who live near you?

Closer but more alone.

Relevant video about chairs: youtube.com

If chairs are like Facebook twitter.com