Last week, Facebook Inc. announced its new corporate name, Meta, along with a new logo as part of the company’s strategic shift toward focusing on the metaverse. The public’s initial reaction to the rebrand is less than enthusiastic, according to new data from Morning Consult.
A plurality of Americans said they have an unfavorable opinion of the new name. Meta’s new logo received a slightly less chilly reception, with respondents more evenly split on the warped infinity symbol.
What the numbers say
- Zuckerberg told the public that the new corporate name is meant to better “reflect who we are and the future we hope to build,” a reference to his aspirations of building a metaverse, which he describes as “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” The public, however, is not so sure that’s Meta’s main motivation for changing its name.
- Roughly half (51 percent) of Americans said that if they had to guess, they would say Meta rebranded in an effort to distance itself from negative press. The company has been the subject of scrutiny following the leak of internal documents that have come to be known as the “Facebook Files” or “Facebook Papers.” Forty-four percent of consumers said they’ve heard about these leaked documents.
The poll was conducted Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2021, among 2,200 U.S. adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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