it’s a fantasy world full of deviants…

Way back in 2006, there was a thing called Second Life. And web 2.0. And every agency person and marketer I knew was falling over themselves to do something. Anything! I recall many presentations explaining what it was all about and trying to act like I knew what I was talking about while being bemused at wandering around empty brand palaces and finding the only places full of people were typically in the ‘mature’ areas.

Fast forward to 2022 and the noise is familiar. Experts in the Metaverse are among us. Brands are spunking huge amounts on everything from NFTs to buying land in new places. And everybody has an opinion and at the same time nobody seems to know WTF it still is.

I was doing some clearing out of old tech, hard drives etc. and came across a few decks about web 2.0 and Second Life. You could drop these into a conversation today no?

The first is from Greg Verdino who was leading the charge in Digitas at the time.

Plus ca change. And this lovely quote from Chris Clarke, then ECD at Digitas in the UK.

Deviants. Fantasy. Funny for sure. But the point is still relevant. Don’t replicate the same stuff in gaming/NFT/Minecraft etc. that you would do in everyday life.