The great thing about taking a break from Facebook is that I suddenly have all this free time. Time to live. To go out. Notice things. Like Facebook’s intro statement. I was always logged in, so I never saw it before. But now, it’s right there staring me in the face along with a picture of a floating chair (don’t even get me started about the video). It reads:
We honor the everyday things that bring us together and celebrate people everywhere opening up and connecting.
I hate it. Not because of what it says. That’s all fine. I hate it, because I don’t buy it. When Nike said “Just do it” and Apple said “Think different,” I bought it. Their actions fit the campaigns. Facebook is a different story.
It may be for everyone, but it’s not a company about two-thousand-teens new age-y-ness, which is how it reads. It’s Zuck’s company. It may have been imported from Boston, but it has Silicon Valley tech-geek in its veins. It’s the company that keeps changing its interface, user be damned (and I actually like the timeline, for the record). It’s the company that had the offensive ToS that said they had rights to our images (remember that one?).
In fact, when I think Facebook, I think more of a company that’s trying to find a way to mine its data and milk its ubiquity, as it struggles to justify its inflated stock value, than I do of something touchy and feely. I certainly don’t think about a company focused on honoring the everyday or celebrating people everywhere. And, frankly, I think they could strive for more. Maybe connecting the world. Giving everyone voice. Something.
But this isn’t just about Facebook. This is about everyone. Our products are not water. The great thing about water is you can brand it any way you like. It is 100% content neutral. But what we sell is not. As people, we have voices, as photographers, we have opinions. And what you’re looking for in your missions statements, value statements, USPs, and intros isn’t the best-sounding verbiage. You’re looking for the truest and boldest.
There was a time when people actually believed what businesses said. There was a time when saying what you wanted to be instead of what you were was enough. No longer. This is the age of spin. Everyone has something to sell, and everyone has some way to sell it. We see too much. People will still believe it when they hear the right words about the right things. But they can sniff out sales faster than you can say “Sell me.” Because it’s not authentic language people are looking for. It’s real authenticity.
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