- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has dramatically upgraded his style since the pandemic began.
- The billionaire has ditched his grey T-shirt and is sporting a brown shearling jacket and gold chains.
- But Zuckerberg’s makeover may have been part of a plan to appear more approachable.
Mark Zuckerberg certainly stunned the world with his transformation from hoodie-loving nerd to chain-wearing tech dude.
But this bold makeover may not just be a change in Zuckerberg’s fashion sense, but a plan to make the billionaire more approachable to his generation.
In January 2020, Meta’s CEO exchanged a series of emails with colleagues and then-executive director Peter Thiel to discuss ways to better market Facebook to millennials.
But what’s more interesting, as outlined in one email exchange, is the personal brand that Zuckerberg wanted to cultivate as part of Meta’s plan to attract millennials.
“Our company plays a special role in the lives of this generation, but because I am the most famous person in this generation, how I show up will be especially important to me,” Zuckerberg said in a Jan. 4, 2020, email.
Zuckerberg’s email, first reported by the newsletter Internal Tech Emails, was included among the company’s documents and correspondence submitted by the state of Tennessee as evidence in its lawsuit against Meta.
In October, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scurmetti filed a lawsuit against the social media giant, along with 41 other states, accusing the company’s product, Instagram, of “harming the mental health of its young users.”
Interestingly, Zuckerberg wasn’t the only one who saw himself as a youth icon.
In a Dec. 31, 2019 email, Thiel said the company’s popularity among young people means Zuckerberg has “been appointed the spokesman for the millennial generation.”
Thiel said Zuckerberg is seen as “a unique voice, at least in the US, for the hopes, fears and unique experiences of this generation”.
“While I think this overall change is something we should consider in how we communicate and appeal more broadly, I will definitely be thinking more about how I communicate personally,” Zuckerberg responded a few days later, on January 4.
To be sure, Meta may no longer be the most popular social media platform for millennials, as the company faces increasing competition from services like TikTok, which have attracted users with a focus on short-form video.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg might have been able to stick to his plan: The billionaire ditched his once-standard uniform of gray T-shirts for a brown shearling jacket and gold chains.
The results speak for themselves: This year alone, Zuckerberg has made headlines every two weeks for his striking fashion.
Last week, Zuckerberg garnered attention when he posted a video to Instagram of himself riding a hydrofoil in a tuxedo on Independence Day.
“Happy Birthday America!” Zuckerberg wrote in the post.
The image makeover has also been a major PR boost for Zuckerberg, who hasn’t always been seen as the coolest guy in tech.
After all, Zuckerberg’s reputation was tarnished by the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook was accused of allowing the data of millions of users to be improperly accessed by a political analytics firm.
The Meta CEO’s image revamp hasn’t gone unnoticed by other billionaires: Spotify founder Daniel Ek told Forbes last year that he thought Zuckerberg’s new public persona was “a lot more authentic.”
“He’s learned a lot over the last few years and has a new passion for the company,” Ek, who has known Zuckerberg for years, told the outlet. “He realizes that now that he has this huge platform, he needs to act responsibly.”
A representative for Zuckerberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside normal business hours.
