Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has let it be known that any meat he eats comes solely from animals he has killed. Fortune editor at large Patricia Seller reported that Zuckerberg first revealed his new dietary restrictions on his private Facebook page earlier this month. He sent an e-mail to Fortune from his current meetings in Europe, offering more information about his meat-eating and animal-killing ways.
Each year he likes to take on a new personal challenge, he told Fortune, and this year he wanted to act more responsibly about his consumption of meat. Non-meat aside, consuming only what he kills makes Zuckerberg feel more thankful for the food he eats, and more respectful of animals.
Zuckerberg's persona is indistinguishable from Facebook, just as Al Davis' is indistinguishable from the Oakland Raiders. These sorts of details about a leader's philosophical and personal explorations can reflect well on a corporate brand, particularly one which has a bombshell of an IPO on the horizon and an embarrassing case of media relations skulduggery in its recent past. In his awkward fashion, Zuckerberg is making the case that he is a person, not just a young, high tech tycoon.
He has helped personalize Facebook and, better than that, offered himself as a direct contrast to GoDaddy's Bob Parsons, who most likely did not eat the elephant that he shot earlier this year. These kinds of actions from a top executive can stick to a corporate brand like ketchup on a hamburger.