New Friend Request: H2BW

Yes, that is the "How to Boil Water" MySpace contact info. Mike over at TVFoodFan.com pointed this out a few days ago and I quickly had to check it out. Unfortunately, I wasn't really blown away.

Maybe it was the fact that, as of 9/12/06, H2BW only had 47 friends.

Compare that to, say, Justin Timberlake.

Yes, that is more than 136 thousand friends, ole' JT has.

The biggest thing that bugs me about the page is that it comes off as much more of an advertisement for a cookbook, than a personal portal into the lives of people working for Food Network. While I give the network credit for tapping into this new method of marketing, I can't help but wonder why they chose to use an upcoming book as their profile picture instead of an actual person... or several people. Maybe the real people behind H2BW. That's what MySpace is all about-- connecting real people to other real people.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the delicate nature of business blogging and the reasons why companies are hesitant to put themselves out there where people can freely comment on their work for all the world to see. I get that. But when you try to put this in your "About Me" section:

"How to Boil Water is an ideal reference book: its jam-packed with genuinely
useful information presented in such mouth-wateringly inspiring way anyone can use it."

... I'm just going to think you're trying to get a free commercial in disguise as a MySpace profile.

Has anyone else seen How To Boil Water's MySpace page? What do you think?