One Billion Hamburgers Sold to One Billion Facebooks
All good things come in three's. Or, if you would rather, Alle guten Dinge sind drei. Same thing.
Fast forward fifty years and we haven't changed. We still eat burgers. And brands still want to connect with us. In real and relevant and not so obvious ways. That's why I'm not at all surprised by the latest billion brand boaster.
As for menu items and page attributes, we both fear and eagerly await the next newest addition just as we cheered for the McHotdog but mourned the death of Facebook Places. But why do we care? Because at one point we connected with this particular brand and for five more minutes of a particular day, we were delighted.
Back in 1962, McDonald's sold it's billionth hamburger and in the same year introduced that goofy red curly-haired clown so that the fast food chain would appeal to kids better. Insightful, the leaders of that Oak Park, Illinois burger chain were as they saw that people -- and kids too -- needed a reason to connect with a brand. On a very personal level. "You like clowns? You'll like us." They seemed to say.
Fast forward fifty years and we haven't changed. We still eat burgers. And brands still want to connect with us. In real and relevant and not so obvious ways. That's why I'm not at all surprised by the latest billion brand boaster.
On October 4, 2012, Facebook announced that they have more than 1 billion registered users. That's one in every seven people on the planet. That use Facebook. Some every day, hour and some may say, minute. Some have long since abandoned the platform for one reason or another. But most of us fall in between those two extremes.
The interesting correlation between a McDonald's hamburger and Facebook is that in all reality, we need neither product to thrive, or even survive, this world. Goodness knows there is far better food choices than what McD's pushes across a counter a million times a day. And all the news, gossip and conversations that occur on Facebook live outside the frame of a screen in more ways than necessary. We need not the burger nor the network, but we love them both.
As for menu items and page attributes, we both fear and eagerly await the next newest addition just as we cheered for the McHotdog but mourned the death of Facebook Places. But why do we care? Because at one point we connected with this particular brand and for five more minutes of a particular day, we were delighted.
It's those moments of wonder and delight that keep us alive. My only question at this point; where's the beef? Maybe it's the third...
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