Facebook Home Ad Encourages Phone Use During Family Dinners

Facebook Home can make spending time in your real home a little less boring — at least that's the suggestion in a new ad for the product.

Facebook's latest video for Home shows a young woman checking her friends' status updates on her phone to escape the "dull" conversation her family is having at the dinner table. Each update she sees on the phone comes to life around her — one friend pounds away at the drums in the corner of the room, another group of friends have a snowball fight around the table — drowning out the real-world conversation in the process.

The social network has used this formula in several ads now to promote Home, an Android launcher that centers the smartphone experience around friends rather than apps. In one video, an airline passenger checks Home to entertain himself while waiting for takeoff; in another video, a Facebook employee turns to Home to drown out the sound of his boss Mark Zuckerberg talking. Read more...