Here’s where the advertising bloviosphere really has got it wrong. The big marketing news about the Facebook rebrand ain’t about some over-before-it-started attempt to change an inevitable narrative.

Instead, The Reductionist is willing to wager long bitcoin that history will record it as one of the more strategic brand moves in a period that’s entirely too rich in short-term thinking, one-off promotions, and online ephemera of less and lesser importance.

What Z & Co. are attempting is nothing less than a core product pivot—going from a company singularly defined by its social-world-dominating focus to a potentially unlimited portfolio that embraces the intersection of social, entertainment, virtuality, IoT, and whatever the hell else somebody is going to dream up in the next nano-moment or so.

The subtext here, likely something that would only be of interest those of us who bliss out on this deep-weed shit, is that they’ve also decided the platform-formerly-known-as is going stake its claim as a house of brands versus a branded house. As such, they’re in company with the corporate megaliths, Procter & Gamble comes to mind, who can take an entirely Darwinian approach to their offerings.

Now to the hard part: is this such a good thing for the lives of the millions, make that billions, of people whose lives it will likely touch? That’s anything but a simple question, but I have to confess to having less than rose colored feelings about the possibilities.

The reason for that trepidation is rooted in the question that headlined a recent CNBC email promotion: “How will brands build homes in the metaverse?”  Not sure why, but chewing on the thought for a bit put me in mind finding an interesting looking chili pepper at the condiments table. 

You take a tiny nibble, only to realize it’s the evocatively named Georgia Reaper, rated by those who obviously have too much time on their hands, at 2.2 million SHUs (Scoville Heat Units).  That’s 200 times hotter than your humble jalapeno. Not sure whether that’s enough to melt your face off as advertised; then again, not particularly keen to find out.

Just like I’m not entirely sure that I’m eager to get the answer to the aforementioned CNBC speculation.  You see, while their framework was probably more metaphorical, I took it literally.  As in, what role will brand and their products play in the lives we live—the homes we build—in an emergent alt-reality.

The 2.2 million SHU mental depth charge: anything that functions in the “real” world, can be replicated in virtuality.  Maybe not perfectly, as yet, but we all know that’s a matter of time.

The next step is clear: whatever can be “built” can be priced, charged for, and sold in exactly the same way it is IRL.  Or rather, as an app that delivers a similar experience, result, and/or benefit.  And that’s where the brand door opens wide and wider.

I keep thinking about virtual VLMH fashions that are programmed to need a wash from time to time.  Gonna want that pouch of virtual Tide, a Procter & Gamble brand, to clean ‘em up.

If you’re skeptical that people will spend hard actual cash for online illusions, the truth is they hey already do. The online “free gaming” industry is now an $88 billion dollar business on the strength of players buying boosters and new lives. Second Life for adults and Stardoll for younger is already teaching us the how and why of what might become known as M-commerce. In fact, the whole notion of NFTs—spending real money on pixels, pretty much nails proof of concept right down to the ground.

Whether that leads to the “this will be fun” promised by the rebranded Facebook’s launch advertising or its dystopian opposite, is entirely TBD. But while the adland conversation has been consumed by patently critical issues like addictive algorithms and social speech complexities, that’s only the topic du jour.

For the long play, it’s clear that Meta is now going to be right there in the development lab, on the manufacturing floor, and, most important, in the cashier’s cage, as the metaverse unfolds. And that’s about as strategic as it gets.