Facebook & Chairs

Social networking site Facebook just hit its 1 billionth user and to celebrate launched their first major ad. The Advert was created by Wieden & Kennedy, the Portland, Oregon based ad agency that became famous for making Nike's powerful advertisements. The video advertisement appears on the homepage of the site.

The Ad uses chairs as a symbolic way of connecting people around the world, in the same way that Facebook does. I thought it was a weird, random but interesting concept. Wieden Creative Director Karl Lieberman explains that the company wanted its first advertising message to be humble. "Facebook wanted to speak in a significant, but humble way," Lieberman said. "We thought that starting off with chairs really did that. We don't think about chairs a lot, but you can if you want. You can spend $5 on a chair, or $5,000. They could be incredibly ordinary, or incredibly sophisticated. We thought it was a humble but interesting way for Facebook to start talking about itself."

They ad has already been described as "Facebook's first ad" and "its worst ad," by the technology weblog, Gizmodo. It has also been described as "kind of silly". I agree with the overall reaction and don't think the message is very clear in this advertisement but I also don't think this matters too much as Facebook aren't trying to sell or promote anything, just simply celebrate their success and show users what the company represents and how one site connects the world.