• Ad Age , Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:45 AM

While social networks like Facebook offer amazing targeting possibilities, Procter & Gamble's general manager-interactive marketing and innovation isn't convinced that the company's brands should be advertising on them, Jack Neff reports. "What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?" Ted McConnell recently asked a gathering hosted by the Ad Club of Cincinnati.

As an experiment, one of McConnell's staff set out to use Facebook to find a 22- to 27-year-old female P&G employee living in Cincinnati "who likes sex and Cocoa Puffs." He succeeded. "I'm not so sure I want to be targeted like that," says McConnell. "I don't think everything every consumer says to someone else and writes down is somehow monetizable by the media industry."

McConnell, however, feels Facebook's applications are a potentially valuable vehicle for advertisers, one in which they can create an environment that's favorable for their brands and consumers alike.

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