Coca-Cola's Friends

The computer tech commentators are falling all over themselves trying to predict the ramifications on the digital ecology/economy of Microsoft's $240 million equity stake in Facebook. Does this portend ill for Google? A looming threat to eBay?

I don't pretend to know. (I care, but only in the distant way that both these companies are held by mutual funds on which my retirement depends.) It's abundantly clear to me that I'm way behind even the social derriere-garde (no iPod, no cell phone, unable to identify most of the people on the cover of People magazine, etc.). However, there is something that doesn't change much with time: people.

For all the exposure to the new and modern there is that perverse human streak. Case in point: a ZDnet newsletter on November 8 had screen shots of Coca-Cola's Facebook page. (Link was valid when created.)

I think the ZDnet's intended their readers to ponder the consequences of ads appearing on Coca-Cola's Facebook pages. I on the other hand, was attracted to the comments of one "Sarah Yousgren (Rancho Bernardo High School)" (I may have the name wrong, because I'm reading from the screen shot) who ended her post with "coke is the best i don't care if it will make me fat and dead".

The best and brightest advertising minds may not be able to compete with the insouciance of youth.