What Do 10 Million Facebook Friendships Look Like?

Recently, an intern working on Facebook’s data infrastructure engineering team took a sample of nearly 10 million pairs of friends from Facebook’s data warehouse and plotted out their relationships. The result? This intriguingly beautiful image and an accurate map of the world.

Here are the thoughts that Paul shared about the image and its creation:

After a few minutes of rendering, the new plot appeared, and I was a bit taken aback by what I saw. The blob had turned into a surprisingly detailed map of the world. Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well. What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life.

We’d like to see an image of each individual Facebook user pinpointed on a map and see if it is attractive.

The Three Smartest Words in Advertising … Ever

What are the three smartest words ever penned in advertising? Any guesses as to what they might be? If you guessed Just Do It, Nike’s fabulous brand tag, you’d be off the mark. While certainly powerful, well crafted and fitting the three word limiter, there are three other words that have sold more product, driven more repeat business and caused a consumer behavior phenomenon that no other three words in advertising have ever accomplished.

How about Wendy’s Where’s the Beef? … guess again. Avis car rental had a good one with We Try Harder, but alas you would also be wrong. Regardless of how many words are used, there are four things that make a tag line, USP or brand message measure up.

• Longevity – do they stand the test of time? There are certainly great examples of this throughout advertising history, whether they be with three words or not. Think of Alka-Seltzer, Roto Rooter or the California Milk Board for those examples.
• Equity – Have they become synonymous with a company or product? Intel Inside is a good example of this, as is DeBeers A Diamond Is Forever.
• Memorability – Have they influenced our culture, media and language? I (Heart) NY, I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up and This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs. Any questions? are all perfect examples of how a brand can influence culture.
• Originality – Have they broken new ground in advertising? ¡Yo quiero Taco Bell! … Now that was original.

The three words to which I am referring meet all the aforementioned criteria. In use for decades and still today, they are synonymous with a product, are certainly memorable and while original and ground breaking at first, have been copied more than “Got Milk?“. These three words are used today on hundreds of different brands of the same type of product and have driven repeat sales like no other three words ever could. Determining the origin or mastermind behind the copy writing has proved to be fruitless so far, but I continue the quest to give honor and accolade to the man, woman or child that had the brilliant idea to put the words “Lather, rinse, Repeat.” on every bottle of shampoo that rattles of the conveyor belt and makes it’s way into the showers of American homes from sea to shining sea. Shampoo that lasts only half as long as if the packaging had merely said … lather, rinse … we buy twice as much product because we are programmed to do as we are told.

Like Lemmings to the sea, consumers the world over … oh yes, it’s a global phenomena … having lathered and rinsed … repeat the process. Why? Because we were told to, that’s why. I will agree with those of you say that this may be less so with millennials, but even they may follow directions if they think it will make them look/smell/feel better.

So hat’s off to the brilliant package design copy writer, crafty creative guru or brand manager with a “let’s just tell them to repeat it” gleam in their eye … I salute you Sir or Madam. There are not another three words that have affected our culture of cleanliness, stood the test of time or sold more product. Well done.

Now in case any of you skipped to the bottom of this piece to see what three words I was writing about (you know who you are …), let me see if I can influence you with anywhere near their power with three of my own … Read It Again.

Paul Evans is President and CMO of Evans Media Group and can be reached at paul@evansmediagroup.com

Grass Roots Social Media Initiative To Save The Kansas City Folgers Plant

Horrors! The delicious smell of roasting coffee as you walk or drive anywhere near Broadway in the heart of down town Kansas City is about to be stanched for ever! Since 1908 the aroma that has been delighting passers-by, its caffeinated tendrils wafting passed the noses and awakening the senses of Kansas Citians for more than a hundred years is about to be snuffed out by parent company, J.M. Smucker Co.

According to an article in the Kansas City Star, Folgers Coffee Co. will close its longtime downtown plant by 2012, eliminating about 180 jobs. A Facebook fan page has already been created to try to make Folgers change that plan. The fan page can be found by going to Facebook and searching for Folgers on Facebook and then clicking the “Become a Fan” button at the top of the page. It can also be accessed directly at http://www.facebook.com/savefolgerskc. A Twitter page at www.twitter.com/saveFolgersKC has also been established for tweets about the plant, it’s history and it’s impact on the Kansas City community.

J.M.Smucker Co., famous mostly for it’s jams and jellies, bought Folgers from Proctor & Gamble Co. in 2008 and now plans to close several plants and furlough 700 workers. According to The Wall Street Journal, Smucker last month said its fiscal third-quarter earnings jumped 74% amid fewer one-time charges as revenue increased and margins surged.

Meanwhile, the company plans to spend $220 million over the next three years in its coffee and namesake businesses, building a new plant and expenditures for new equipment and technology. Construction on the Ohio facility is expected to begin this fall, with initial production start-up in the summer of 2012.

The grass roots Facebook and Twitter effort to let officials at Smucker know that their customers, jam, jelly and coffee fans alike, disapprove of a company posting record earnings, while laying off the workers who helped them get there, and the shuttering of historic buildings and operations that are part of the fabric of a city and its past.

Media Contact:

Paul Evans
paul@evansmediagroup.com
913-766-0364