Photo Credit: Examiner.com

One week after the much-ballyhooed launch of Apple’s uber tablet thingy, the Twitterverse was still buzzing about the iPad.

Marketers, branding experts and wags wondered aloud about the product’s name, as did @lopapatel, who noted “If Apple had a woman on its board, the iPad would a different name rather than one associated with feminine hygiene!”

Another Twitter topic with wings on Canada’s list was the recent Flames-Leafs shake up. In the words of @alour “How the hell is Phaneuf STILL trending in Canada? My goodness, I hate Leafs fans….”. From @theothervatican: “Days later and I still can’t believe we got Phaneuf for spare parts. Man!” And my personal favorite from @tsnjamesduthie: “Just woke up from a nap and was a little disoriented. Thought for a minute Dion Phaneuf got traded for Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas.” Fergie and Gaga on ice – now THAT’S a show!

Speaking of shows, Facebook was a bit of a gong show this week. First, Huffington Post reported the social networking site underwent yet another redesign, as Facebook continues to attempt to contort itself into Twitter. As per @sarahkrasin: “I see there’s a @Facebook redesign coming soon. Everyone…freak out appropriately.”

Facebook frivolity took on a new meaning this week as two movements emerged to parody our politicians.

Numerous fan pages and groups emerged in homage to Jack Layton’s moustache. The most populous English group (with a mere 104 members), the “Pan-Canadian Assoc. for the Eternal Preservation of Jack Layton’s Moustache” lovingly described the magical powers of Layton’s soup strainer:

“It is they who have discovered that as a unicorn cannot live without its horn, the secret of Jack’s power is contained deep within the follicles located between his nose and upper lip.“

From follicular follies to running rings around the Prime Minister, some anonymous comedian/ activist created the page “Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper?” Answer: yes. The Onion Ring is currently at 61,770 fans to Harper’s 29,822. In the words of Allison Smith “An onion ring would never prorogue the deep fryer.”

While we in Canada enjoy onion rings and free speech, other parts of the world, not so much.

A DigitalJournal.com story reported “Egyptian cleric issues fatwa against Facebook”. The story went on to say “Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Atrash, former head of the fatwa committee at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, issued a religious decree saying that increased use of social networking sites have resulted in rise of the moral corruption.”

Or maybe it’s civil insurrection he’s afraid of, like the #iranelection Twitter unrest of last year. Back in the land of the free, some welcome news for Canadians. NowPublic.com reported “’Buy American’ Provision: CANADA Now Exempt … Canada and United States have reached an agreement to exempt Canadian firms from the ‘Buy American’ provision in the economic stimulus package, Trade Minister Peter Van loan announced today.”

Phew! Now if they’d only let Hulu.com come through we’d be all set. Oh yeah – that’s the CRTC’s fault. Well, there’s a fan page to fix that too – “Dissolve the CRTC”.

As usual, send me your feedback on Twitter at @dblacombe or via e-mail doug@communicatto.com.

Doug Lacombe is president of communicatto.com, a digital marketing, investor and public

relations agency.

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