Yesterday I saw a sign on the road in Copenhagen;
First I thought it was a coffee shop called FACEBOOK. Then I read the small letters which said “find us on FACEBOOK”… (Im writing in capital letters because it really did scream to me). It was really bizarre because FACEBOOK was written right where you would look for the store name.
It reminds me a bit about this inserted on a webpage (underneath the “we-take-these-credit-cards-statement”):
Or this thrown in at the bottom of a newsletter (and then when you open it, it errors because they haven’t gotten a username for their page)
It just seems so not very well thought-through. I don’t have a problem with people stating that they are on Facebook – it just seems like such an empty shout and very end-of-the-90s, because back then, everybody was shouting “FIND US ON THE INTERNET” it later became a URL.
My problem with it is when it seems half-assed.
Having nothing but sales pitches and corporate-speak in a newsletter and then stating “find us on Facebook” is annoying the hell out of me. A tiny bit of Facebook does not make you a social company. Having no personal contact or human reach out on your website and then putting up a huge “F” underneath your credit card logos – is something I see as a sad attempt to be something your not. You’re trying to be hip, but you aren’t. You want to show that your shop is cool, but you haven’t quite put in the effort. It’s a quick fix and I get the old “you just don’t get it” feeling. It literally destroys your brand and your identity for me. Sorry, but it does.
Well au contraire, maybe it’s me that doesn’t get it. Maybe I’m a writing lunatic that wants to make companies into something they’re not and something that they don’t really want to be?
