The Industry

Meta Culpa

Facebook’s rebrand may have placed the company in a better position for what came after—even if the legless avatars never came to life.

A new logo and name are unveiled in front of Facebook headquarters in 2021. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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The world was a very different place five years ago. We were living through COVID lockdowns, fearing for our lives. ChatGPT didn’t exist, and talk of A.I. barely passed people’s lips. Some things have stayed the same, though: People still make fun of Mark Zuckerberg .

They had even more reason than normal to do so on Oct. 28, 2021. That day, the Facebook Company announced a seemingly inauspicious rebranding to Meta , and its founder, Zuckerberg, was going all-in on the metaverse. “From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first,” he wrote in a letter to the public .…