Facebook is now called Meta and Mark Zuckerberg truly embraced the new name by going meta during his presentation about the name change.
Speaking during the virtual presentation on Thursday, Zuckerberg explained that he is now looking to embrace the “metaverse” and branch his company out to incorporate more virtual reality technology, while keeping the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram as they are.
That’s all well and good for him but why on Earth was there a bottle of BBQ sauce on the shelf behind him throughout the 90-minute presentation?
Yes, eagle-eyed viewers noticed that there was a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce just sitting on a shelf on what we can only presume was Zuckerberg’s living room.
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As you can imagine, this odd ornament created a lot of mockery for Zuckerberg (not the only mockery he has faced since the name change was announced).
sweet baby rays book holder. SWEET BABY RAYS BOOK HOLDER. pic.twitter.com/w9vD90xgvT
— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) October 28, 2021
You know in stories where aliens are trying to pass for humans but they get things off just a little bit?
— Aubry Andrews (@AubryAndrews) October 28, 2021
Here is Mark Zuckerberg using Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce as a bookend. pic.twitter.com/xpZRDhchYo
According to all the data Zuckerberg has on humans, a perfectly-curated shelf involves a bunch of fake books from Hobby Lobby and an unopened bottle of BBQ sauce. pic.twitter.com/qTlWA04pYC
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) October 29, 2021
Zuck is just like us! Sauce on the living room shelf pic.twitter.com/nq0QdWISzN
— Anthony Miale (@anferno) October 28, 2021
Today I learned Mark Zuckerberg uses BBQ sauce as a bookend pic.twitter.com/NCLVXAqdzY
— Vax Merstappen (@JC_in_Calgary) October 28, 2021
Mark Zuckerberg: Get me something that humans like so people don't think I am a robot.
— Wickedshrapnel (@wickedshrapnel) October 28, 2021
Assistant: Here is a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce.
Mark Zuckerberg: Great! Put that on my bookshelf so I look like a common man. pic.twitter.com/wqh4rswmZR
So what’s going on here? Was it product placement or does Zuckerberg just really love this brand of BBQ sauce?
Well, it turns out that Zuckerberg was being quite clever with us and was making a reference to a presentation that he had done years ago.
That was back in 2015 when he launched Facebook Live in a presentation which involved him basically putting on a BBQ where he smoked and grilled a lot of meat. According to a Ceros article on the presentation, Zuckerberg said the word “meat” 13 times in just 32 minutes and constantly name-dropped the aforementioned sauce.
So there you go. It was just Zuckerberg having a bit of fun – and we’d dare say that people would have found it funny if Facebook didn’t already have a series of controversies attached to its name.