Facebook is having a midlife crisis and it’s as cringy as it gets.
Facebook’s latest ad campaign for India is equivalent of an over-enthusiastic, middle-aged man behaving like a teenager tripping on energy bars. No seriously, imagine an uncle dressed in baggy pants and snapbacks and saying ‘lit fam’ because he thinks it cools. That’s the level of cringe this Facebook campaign is.
Before we explain any further, watch the ad right here:
Before we talk about why the ad makes us want to cover our eyes, let’s talk about why an organization like Facebook would need a (“youth targeted”) campaign like this anyway? India is the largest market for Facebook with millions of users but here’s the deal- the social media platform is losing its young audience at a fast pace. Most young people are now on Instagram and Snapchat while Facebook is just a platform to tag people in memes.
Facebook is now a place where older people want to be. Your dad, mom, aunty and chacha are all on Facebook, posting minion memes and Jai Mata Di collages. Obviously, young people want out. So what does Facebook do? Come up with an ad campaign that says “Hey, we’ve got cool people on Facebook just like you, why don’t you join us?”
Does this frenzied approach remind you of something? That’s right, Orkut, a platform that pretty much died out because all the ‘cool young’ people migrated to other platforms. Now Facebook hardly likely to die out anytime soon, but an ad campaign like this makes us think people in Silicon Valley are panicking.
Not everything has to be so edgy when it comes to the young audience. Calm the hell down.
Way too many people act entitled already, so stop encouraging that BS attitude by showcasing young people like they’re special snowflakes.
Labeling things ‘cool’ won’t make us want to jump on your bandwagon.
If you really want to do something to get more people to join your platform, do something worthwhile that makes a difference. Please don’t show show chick wearing sarees with sneakers cuz she’s ‘cool like us’.
PS- Why do protagonists in such ads have to be always angry and brooding, we have other emotions too, you know.
*deactivates FB account*
(JK, we need it for the memes)
