From a comms perspective, this is genius for a few reasons:
- It was filmed at Tosca, the exact bar where the famous 2007 Fortune photo of the PayPal Mafia was shot.
- Tech has a branding problem: many of these players are accused of being shadowy, lying manipulators. So, FF lets you watch them be shadowy, lying manipulators... in a game.
- In the game they deceive within bounded rules, for fun. Everyone is in on it, playing the game together. This is in contrast to what they're accused of: deceiving behind closed doors.
- The video converts this mysterious power into visible social dynamics. You get to watch and play along.
- Because it's a game format, watching them deceive becomes humanizing. You laugh along instead of being afraid. And indeed, the video implicitly suggests that the same traits required to win Mafia are similar to the traits required to build companies: reading people, keeping cool under pressure, taking measured risk. Deception stops looking like malice and starts looking like what it takes to win.