Facebook IPO falls flat on its "face." Was GM pulling Facebook ads earlier a sneak preview?

General Motors pulled its paid advertising ($10 M) a few days prior to the Facebook IPO. GM said while it "will continue to use Facebook's free social-media services such as fan pages, it is 'reassessing' the use of paid advertising on the site."

"Nearly 60% of Facebook users say they never click on ads or sponsored content," according to a new poll from the Associated Press and CNBC. Debra Williamson of eMarketer said it is "difficult to know" how effective Facebook (paid) advertising is.

In contrast to GM, Ford puts a "face" in its TV advertising for pick-up trucks. In 2007, Ford named Mike Rowe, star of Discovery Channel's popular "Dirty Jobs" to be spokesman. (BEVNOTE: Please log in to Facebook to see these two fan pages.) The "Dirty Jobs" Facebook page gets a lot more "likes" (2,202,410) than GM's fan page (685).

But that's not paid advertising. That's social and it's free. And Mike's "fans" don't have to buy anything. Time will tell if Facebook can work out a busness model to profit and please shareholders.