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Just a few days before their IPO roadshow is set to kick off, Facebook has released a half-hour long video love letter to would-be investors. We're impressed with its overall look—it's got gentle lighting, soft focus, and lots of feigned sincerity—but we can't help noticing something a little disconcerting about the whole thing. All that gentle lighting, soft focus, and feigned sincerity, can't stop Facebook's leaders from sounding a little creepy.
Mark Zuckerberg, obviously, is the star of this show. He's wearing that same blue-grey Facebook T-shirt he's always wearing and sounding boyish as ever. "I grew up with the Internet," Zuckerberg says. "You know in middle school I used search engines like Google and Yahoo and I just thought they were the most amazing thing. This complete symbol of the age we live in, where now you have access to all of this information. The thing that seemed like it was missing was always just people, right." What follows is a parade of Facebook's most used features, and while we don't gain many fresh insights, it's startling to see the entire concept of Facebook distilled down to a single episode. With the help of COO Sheryl Sandberg and Chris Cox, VP of Product, Zuckerberg sells his site not only for its popularity but also for its capacity to change how the world works. They do not understate this lofty notion.