Facebook Uses An Unlikely Medium
If you owned the largest communications medium on the planet, what would you use to apologize to the United States? Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in U.S. and British newspapers Sunday. 
The message was straightforward and clear. He apologized for the “breach of trust.” He then went on and said how Facebook will learn and move on from this issue.
“I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” he said. “We’re now taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
I wasn’t surprised by the message; I was surprised he didn’t use his own medium. Worldwide there are more than 2 billion monthly active Facebook users. I couldn’t find one news (or fake news) story where they asked Facebook why they used print instead of buying space on their own super medium.
There is still something magical about print: There is something more tangible, more credible and more newsworthy about placing full-page ads in major market newspapers, especially on Sunday. It’s a great way to say “I’m sorry.”
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
