What is a brand to make of this? Should they be more choosy in their advertising platform?

Part of advertising is to whip up a sense that ‘this is where it’s at.’ – so I would tell advertisers to put more, not less, effort into Facebook in order to turn around this adverse user perception.

Do you think that the timing of the survey would affect the results? I do.

In the ‘current economic climate’ people are sniffing out bargains and resent not be able to afford what is offered to them.

Conversely, when people are rolling in ready money, the act of spending it makes them feel powerful and that they can lord it over the sellers upon they bestow their wealth.

Also, what people want for free and what people expect to get for free are two different things.

The irony in your preface to the comment by the Facebook representative is well expressed, but the fact is that people do identify with some brands – particularly brands that reinforce the identity that the consumer wants to have for him or herself.

Sometimes the siren call of appeal is too cheesy to fail to see.

Sometimes the product might seem too pedestrian to be able to weave any kind of appeal around it. Yes, it is a stretch to see how a dry cleaner could have brand appeal, but there is always a way to present a brand.

The dry cleaner may have more problem selling itself than something with more obvious appeal, but a photo in its window (or on a social media platform) of someone in a sharp, neatly tailored outfit doing something that the target audience loves to do will still turn heads.

We are surrounded by images that put us in the picture of our imagined selves, and we are pulled by those visions.