Facebook, the movie: an update

It was over a year ago that we first heard about Facebook, the movie, and now, at last… a trailer. Not that it, nor the accompanying official website is letting much slip, yet.

Those who sit through the trailer will be treated to some corkers of lines, including:

“The site got 22 hundred hits within two hours?”
“Thousand – 22 thousand“.

Which made me laugh, because – and forgive me for saying this – such statements might go down the as high drama in our own office, but they do seem a little lame as the selling point for a blockbuster film.

Naturally, the dialogue is accompanied by the usual soundtrack of frantic fingers on a rattling keyboard, possibly from the same sound effects disc once utilized by Tron, War Games and You’ve Got Mail.

We’ll certainly reserve judgment until release, and we’ll happily risk wasting a couple of hours at the cinema – after all, we’ve already frittered away half our lives on the real Facebook – but it’s hard to deny that almost all films centred around computers, let alone websites have to provide an awful lot of dramatic tension to make up for the lack of stunning visuals. If director Fincher is wise, and we’re sure he is, he will, of course, focus on the people behind the platform.

Come to think of it, there’s a lesson for us all there. Yes, Facebook is a remarkable phenomenon; yes, it’s ripe for your marketing initiatives. But it is the people on there, forging and strengthening real-life friendships, marriages, events and all the other dramas of real life, that create Facebook – and it is those real people that we need to market to.

Oh, and don’t forget the immortal truth provided by the film’s strapline:

You don’t get to 55 million friends without making a few enemies.