AxiosThe site, known for its political analysis and extensive use of bullet points, has joined the ranks of pundits who adore Mark Zuckerberg. PR strategy. They claim that the Meta CEO (as in the previous headline) is “having a PR moment” that “gives the company itself a halo effect”. This is obviously not true, but let’s say in a more accessible format of Axios audience.
Big picture: Zuckerberg’s recent PR blitz is neither out of character nor indicative of his newly restored image. In fact, Meta and Zuckerberg are facing one of the biggest crises they’ve ever faced.
Why it matters: It is irresponsible at best to praise the PR strategy of a giant company that has been credibly accused of causing various mass-scale harms, even if that PR strategy works – it doesn’t.
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Describing competitor products as inferior is what executives should do. Zero points are awarded.
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Meta’s response to some of the CEO’s social media comments is not a sign of radical originality, but a ploy for engagement.
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Acting like you’ve “never seen” Zuckerberg, a living, breathing human being as we know it… real” is an amazingly low bar to clean!
It should be noted here that Meta is involved mass brawl From nearly every state, in countless ways it allegedly harms its youngest users. And Zuckerberg’s actions, or lack thereof, are at the center of many of these claims. Court documents revealed that the CEO personally intervened Blocking a proposed ban on plastic surgery filters on Instagram despite expert advice that these effects could exacerbate body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Under his leadership Meta became blind eye against children using its platform, contrary to its policies and doing little to prevent adults sexual harassment children. Instagram’s recommendation algorithm under his leadership has been moved forward child sexual abuse content and related “wide pedophile network”. At the same time, Zuckerberg many times rejected or ignored the demands of his top lieutenants to invest more in security. His lawyers were there last week federal court arguing that it should not be held personally liable in dozens of lawsuits related to damages allegedly caused by its platforms.
The most viral moments from Zuck’s congressional testimony Axios Oddly suggesting it was good for his image, he stuttered for a moment an apology to the families of children who have been victims of online exploitation on platforms it controls. A parent in the room described as “compulsory”. The second most shared point was Sen. Ted Cruz pointing to a poster of an Instagram warning screen that said search results “may contain child sexual abuse images” and also provided an option to “view results anyway.”
Needless to say, Zuckerberg and his handlers are savvy enough to know that none of this bodes well for the public image of the world’s fourth-richest man. Zuckerberg was especially eager to share his interesting hobbies new found love Japanese McDonald’s is not surprising at all. Distraction is an outdated PR move, but no Instagram post can beat such a headline.Meta Staff Finds Instagram Tool Enables Child Exploitation. The company pressed ahead anyway.”
This is not a new strategy for Zuckerberg. True, he was once painfully awkward many sweaty public speaker, he shed this vision long ago. And he went through several different versions of himself. He spent most of 2017 as a listening tour Visits to US farms and factories and dinner parties with random families (many of whom happened to live in swing states, speculation (He’s been waiting to transition into politics.) And, well, the political tour is kind of what he’s done: Zuckerberg’s full-time job is reportedly conducting a survey that tracks public perception of his often alien behavior. It is reported that there is such a request exit only after six months, came to believe that the company was bad for society. Mark’s preferences have fluctuated widely in various public polls bad for extremely, it’s funny, cannot be fixed bad.
This is far from the first time Mark has tried to distract the public with his personal hobby, only to fail to connect with the average human experience to create a quick and spectacular faceplant. Take his notoriety for example backyard grill Facebook Live Since 2017, he’s managed to say the word “meats” 13 times in 30 freakishly painfully long minutes. It was awkward, but not as weird as the time Mark challenged himself to eat the flesh of animals he killed, resulting in him “turning a live goat into a dead one with a laser gun, then a knife. .” according to Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. (Like a true rich freak, he opted to learn how to end the animal’s life, but, according to Dorsey’s same memoir, left the butchery to someone else.) Perhaps, in 2019, he discovered his love. foiling — which is similar to wakeboarding, but worse and more expensive.
In short, Zuckerberg isn’t reinventing himself so much as rehashing the same PR formula he’s used for years, especially when his company is in the kind of trouble it always seems to be. His people try to make him seem like a normal guy through carefully curated social media posts, photos and conversations with media personalities. This is a strategy that will continue to work on a few gullible people. At least as long as some media personalities like Axios CEO Mike Allen are willing to call men like Mark Zuckerberg “real, bold and unguarded.”
