I was on facebook and realized that many people have changed their profile pictures to a picture of a celebrity that slightly resembles them. Looking more into it, i noticed the word doppelganger. It was seriously everywhere. There are articles all over the internet saying that it is “doppelganger week” on facebook. I didn’t know what that word meant, so i decided to look it up. For those of you who don’t know what it means either, wikipedia defines it as ” any double or look-alike of a person.” So why this sudden craze? and how did the word spread so fast?
There are a couple new applications on facebook that helps you find your doppelganger. One of them called “Face Double Celebrity Look-Alike Doppelganger on Facebook” which was too busy to use the first few times i tried. But when it finally let me, it went through my pictures on facebook and gave me a few celebrities that look like me. I got Evangeline Lily, Nikki Reed, Vanesssa Langies, and some others. All brunettes but i don’t think i look like any of them. There is another application sponsored by coke zero that takes a photo of you and find another facebook user anywhere in the world that looks similar. That was creepy because i actually did find someone that looked a lot like me and it gave me her name so i could friend request her. it was cokes way of advertising coke zero because its similar to regular coke, but different.
The combination of word of mouth and quick clicks to share information got me thinking about the potential Facebook really has for marketing. Can you get quality brand recognition on Facebook? The doppelganger fad is kind of ridiculous, however despite the doppelganger fad lacking a point, people are still participating and rapidly spreading the word. the doppelganger has over 8,000 fans. In addition, hundreds of people are changing their personal photos to a celebrity look alike every minute. There is a debate about rather or not this is legal. Is Facebook violating privacy rights which they promise to protect by allowing users to participate in the Doppelganger fad?
