

Zuckerberg bores staff in new Facebook Home ad - eplanit
http://m.cnet.com/news/zuckerberg-bores-staff-in-new-facebook-home-ad/57579464

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webwielder
Microsoft's original campaign for WP7 focused on the idea that it let you
check your phone quickly and then get back to real life. This commercial is
all about shutting out reality. I have a feeling about which message is going
to resonate more with people.

~~~
shin_lao
That's because for most people reality sucks. Well played Facebook.

~~~
Shamanmuni
But if what you say is true, the ad shows that working for Facebook sucks too.
I don't think that was played very well.

~~~
shin_lao
It's not working at Facebook that sucks: it's obviously cool because... It's
Facebook!

What sucks is listening to the boss. "lol"

I think the target audience is very young. Facebook strategy is probably very
long term, playing on the fact that young people grew up with Facebook.

~~~
mcintyre1994
I'm not entirely convinced about that strategy. In the long term, them young
people's kids are going to see Facebook as their parent's social network. I
don't see that being a good thing for Facebook.

~~~
unholyalliance
I think they already do, and that's why they are using things like snapchat,
whatsapp, and tumblr instead.

~~~
solistice
Which explains the perceived insanity of tumblr posts.

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ndespres
It almost feels as though they were trying to beat SNL to the punch on making
fun of the new product.

I think one of the reasons the Home product rubs me the wrong way is similar
to the reason I resent junk-food companies for knowing exactly who their
target consumer is, and building a product suited perfectly to taking
advantage of the weaknesses of those consumers to move more of their product.
Just like the way a nearby television broadcasting commercials starts loud and
with a flash, designed to pull your eye in.

This product takes advantage of the brain's weakness for bright, shiny moving
things, instant reward of an image flashing with a sound effect when you
complete the desired action ("liking" something). Users won't be able to put
it down. It feels cheap.

~~~
unholyalliance
Perhaps we should prevent Facebook from airing ads, like we do for Marlboro.

~~~
mh-
you're free to do that now: outbid them, with your money, for all of the
advertising spots.

then you can promote whatever you want - until someone else comes along and
decides to obstruct you, of course.

~~~
unalone
That's facetious and doesn't address OP's point, which is that certain
industries are banned from advertising their products in certain ways when
said products could harm their users.

I don't agree that Facebook is necessarily at the point where we can call it
harmful, but your "all you need to do is outbid Facebook" spiel is some smarmy
nonsense – not least of which because Facebook itself owns some premier
adspace outright, which it's more than willing to use to spam whatever new
product of theirs that they'd like.

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DividesByZero
This ad was actually pretty scary - Facebook seems to be actively encouraging
a culture of active and constant distraction. I don't think that society has
really learned to handle being bomabrded with always-on distractions yet and
this seems to push the idea aggressively.

~~~
eslaught
I think pg's Stuff essays is relevant here:

<http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html>

Facebook is just a new trend we'll have to resist as a society. The current
generation will probably succumb to it, but give it another 50 years or so and
society will find ways to manage time on Facebook such that it doesn't
interfere too much with our functioning.

~~~
DividesByZero
Assuming society can actually find time without being distracted. No doubt
we'll adapt, but at what cost?

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Shamanmuni
It continues to amaze me how Facebook is so popular when they don't seem to
have a clue about human communication. First comparing the service to a chair
(really?!), now showing their CEO and public face as a boring guy who nobody
pays attention to and its developers as having attention deficit disorder.

I know I'm not their target audience, but I wonder if any Facebook user thinks
this ad is cool or funny. My inner teen thinks it's lame.

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ereckers
Sometimes I wonder how these ads are even signed off on. The spot is a nifty,
creative accomplishment for the team that put it together, but as an advert,
or product launch message, it's not so good. Basically Facebook paid for
another portfolio piece for the members of their ad team.

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kostya-kow
A lot of people on HN don't like this ad because they are not the target
audience. This ad is not made to hire new employees.

Most effective advertisements are not logical and don't have good argument,
because they are aimed the lowest common denominator.

The target audience for this ad is probably the kind of people who have shitty
jobs which they hate, and they are not enthusiastic Hackers who love their
jobs.

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kghose
It's actually a pretty good ad. No comment about product.

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jerrya
Seriously, it made me think that guy needed a new job. I do remember being
that young and finding jobs that didn't suck so hard I had to spend all my
time distracting myself from the job itself. I was not going to be one of
those guys that needed 5 cups of coffee a day just to stay awake at work.

I mean, come on, 8, 10, 12 hours per day, 5 days a week, 50ish weeks a year.
Soon it adds up to a real lifetime.

Find yourself something to do that you find interesting, young facebook
dweebs.

Give up the damn money programming pointless apps, it seems to be sucking your
souls away.

~~~
solistice
8 hours of 24 is 33% 10 hours of 24 is 41% 12 hours of 24 is 50% 5 days out of
7 is 71% ergo [8]=21% [10]=29% [12]=35% so that's the percentages of a week
you spend at work 50 weeks out of 52 is 96% which, calculated onto the
previous values should be a reduction of a bit more than a rounding error. So
with 8 to 12 hour workdays, you'll spend around 30% of your time at work.

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sixQuarks
not sure this is the message you want to send out there. Use our app, so that
you never pay attention to ANYTHING

~~~
solistice
But then that's roughly the reason why we drink. So that we don't have to pay
attention to anything, so that we can forget things (yes, there's responsible
drinking too, but so is there responsible usage of social media). Tim Feriss
formulated it nicely as the information addict. Is addiction healthy? No. Are
there adicts out there? Yes.

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Irishsteve
I was left with the feeling that facebook home is the exact same as the
facebook app

~~~
Kequc
From what I understand I've been lucky not to use the Facebook app. This ad
told me exactly nothing about anything regarding why I should.

~~~
untog
Oh, you reject Facebook and don't feel like you need it in your life? Please,
_tell me more_

~~~
Kequc
I don't understand the source of this sarcasm. Facebook is a waste of
everyone's time, energy and everything else. This ad contributes nothing and
exemplifies that.

Are you saying people DO need Facebook in their life? Because I've been mounds
happier without it.

~~~
onedev
Yes people do need it in their lives to communicate. It's a fantastic tool if
you use it like one.

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RexRollman
This reminds me a lot of the old days of Windows 3.1, when you had third party
shells out there like HP's NewWave. I can't recall any of them having any long
term success.

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kayoone
All monitors seem to show the same screen (probably an image). Does anyone
recognize the editor running ?

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axx
Is it just me, or does the guy that jumps in to the pool look like John
Gruber?

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joshguthrie
I'm gonna go ahead and say it:

Worst. Ad. Ever.

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JasonFruit
Was that Sublime Text on Joey's monitor?

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moron4hire
Did anyone else notice that this depiction of Facebook's office where their
programmers work looks kind of like a sweatshop?

