Panicked Facebook execs could change invasive ads today
Following rumors that it was actually Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who stole Christmas because the social network's new ad product shares a user's Internet buying activity with friends, BusinessWeek reports executives met yesterday for "deep talks over proposed changes" which could go into effect as early as today. Fastest 100 years I ever saw.
When Zuckerberg & Co. launched Facebook Beacon earlier this month, the boy CEO declared the beginning of media's next 100 years. And ad agencies in New York ate it up, saying that Google, with its wimpy search-targeted ads, had better watch out.
The only damper on enthusiasm among agency execs, however, was the worry that users might react badly to a perceived as an invasion of their privacy. Ahyup. Truth is, that's when Facebook probably should have seen this coming. When the people who came up with Joe Camel start voicing moral concerns, that may be the moment you should have realized you'd pushed it too far, Zuck.