Earlier in 2019, a viral marketing campaign (?) unlike anything we’ve ever seen hit the internet.
For some time prior, Kylie Jenner had been the Queen of Instagram, as she was one of the most followed personalities on the massive social media service.
And in addition to being one of the most followed, she was also the record-holder for most-liked-photo, as a photograph of her days-old daughter Stormi racked in over 18 million likes. An impressive feat to say the least.
But all the while, as Kylie continued to dominate the Gram, a man behind the scenes was secretly plotting to usurp Queen Jenner. That man is Chris Godfrey.
Chris Godfrey, a 29-year-old Englishman who lives in London, entered the new year with an idea: “Could something as universal and simple as an egg be great enough to beat that record?”
In Godrey’s mind, because an egg “has no gender, race or religion” that makes it “universal” enough to break the record for most Instagram likes. And that’s exactly what happened.
Uploaded to Instagram on January 4, Godrey’s world_record_egg broke Jenner’s record in just nine days. Now, the photo currently stands at 52 million likes, while the account itself has over 10 million followers.
“In its infancy, it was one of those ridiculous things, like, ‘Oh, we’re trying to break this world record by just liking this random image,’” said Sam Shepherd, an executive creative director at the digital agency 360i, to the New York Times.
But now that the egg has broken the world record, where does it go from here? Mental health awareness advertisements, obviously!
During Super Bowl LIII, a commercial featuring world_record_egg ran on streaming service Hulu that shows the egg sharing a story about how going viral has affected its mental health.
“The pressure of social media is getting to me. If you’re struggling, too, talk to someone,” the commercial reads before directing viewers to the website for the nonprofit Mental Health America.
According to Godfrey, the mental health awareness advertisement was the “first of several causes that the egg — which they and their fans call Eugene — will come to stand for.”
