Maybe when Facebook thinks you’re a porn star, it’s not exactly a good thing – but it is an opportunity to make light of the situation, which is exactly what author and brand strategist Erika Napoletano did when she received a “metric f*ckton” of emails alerting her of an ad that got associated with her Facebook fan page.
Facebookers who follow Napoletano’s work through Redhead Writing probably already know her as a sassy, funny lady who subscribes to the truth that the “F” word is the most useful word in the English language, and that unapologetic lack of censorship reflected in both her blog and Facebook page. Those who have heard of her only recently and have decided to Like her on the social network were (pleasantly) surprised when Facebook recommended a different page for them to follow:
The ad points in the direction of Camille Crimson, an adult film actress. At first glance, it’s pretty obvious why Facebook would think these two pages would be similar, but Napoletano decided that instead of having a lot of offense taken, pictures are a wackier approach.
“Camille’s a pretty hot sandwich and I’m flattered that Facebook thinks we’re similar,” wrote Napoletano. “After all, we are both redheads. We both have freckles (giggle). Might I also say that we both respectively have a nice set of boobs?”
While Napoletano’s blog entry about the happy happenstance may suggest that the mix-up may have been caused by using similar keywords in a Facebook ad campaign or outright targeting of a specific page’s fans, Crimson maintains that this comparison was unintentional. “I didn’t target her fans. I haven’t bought any Facebook ads,” Crimson wrote on the Adweek Facebook page as a response to the site’s report of the Facebook faux pas. “She and I had a polite discussion about it and laughed it off.”
Well Facebook, if we can’t commend you for your kooky algorithms, maybe in this case we can give you props for your facial recognition software. Pretty spot-on!
