By now, you’ve probably heard of the Instagram-famous egg. If not, here’s a brief run-through: a photo of an egg made a goal to beat the “most-liked” Instagram photo ever, which was a photo of Kylie Jenner and her then-newborn baby Stormi. It quickly succeeded. It’s hard not to like eggs — after all, they’re a pretty healthy addition to every diet.
Still, we should have seen this coming. The egg wasn’t just an egg — it was a very important ad that was revealed on Super Bowl Sunday (much like Jenner’s popular photo one year ago). It was given an animated personality, and stated that it felt the need to crack.
Reason being, the pressure of the media got to be too much. The egg said that talking to people helped a great deal, and that others who are starting to feel like they’re cracking under the pressure should know that help is out there. It’s so good to see that the egg, which reached so many people, was out to spread such a positive message.
The egg first appeared and made headlines in early January, with this standard photo. Nobody seemed to know who was behind it, just the fact that it had a pretty big mission to accomplish.
The egg strived to get over 18 million likes, but ended up with well over 52 million. A world-record egg indeed.
But on January 18th, the egg posted a photo with a very small crack.
That crack got even bigger on January 22nd. That’s when many of the egg’s fans realized something might be up.
Days later, more cracks appeared. Most people thought that a baby chick would emerge (because, how cute would that be?) and didn’t realize an important message would follow.
Then, on Super Bowl Sunday, the cracked egg dressed for the occasion. For the first time since its initial post, it left a caption, stating that egg fans should tune in to Hulu after the Super Bowl.
And that’s where people first spotted the ad. It’s short and to the point, but is a great way to remind people that they aren’t alone.
“Phew! I feel so much better now,” the caption read. “If you’re feeling the pressure, visit talkingegg.info to find out more. Let’s build this list together.”
Hulu will crack open Instagram’s most influential egg, revealing all after the Super Bowl: https://t.co/xhV6g5TYh3 pic.twitter.com/45MrOi5jSc
— ADWEEK (@Adweek) February 2, 2019
With the ad, the creator of the account also came forward. His name is Chris Godfrey, and he’s a 29-year old advertising executive from London.
According to Time, he chose the egg for a pretty incredible reason. “An egg has no gender, race or religion. An egg is an egg, it’s universal,” he said. Creating it with the help of friends, he also stated that the success of the egg was a fluke.
Just seen this on Instagram, it’s the account that owns the most liked picture in the world (the egg). Really refreshing to see a positive message being spread about mental health! Hopefully more positive things like this will come off the back of this #ItsOkNotToBeOk pic.twitter.com/rgVAI94en0
— Joshowarth (@joshowarth) February 4, 2019
“It’s not really about me,” he added. “It’s just about the egg and sort of where we can take it and what we can do with it.” And what they did with it is definitely admirable. Hopefully the ad helped someone out there who was struggling.
It’s often hard to speak up when you’re feeling depressed. But there’s always someone around to help or listen, whether or not we realize it.
Having the account build up anticipation for such an important message is a great use of the egg’s viral fame.
And people found it heartwarming that after their creators saw that people were joining in and liking their account, they decided to do something with their moment in the spotlight. Think of the impact that could be made if everyone with a high following could do something similar.
While this couldn’t have gone better, there are still a ton of great fan theories floating around the internet. One of the best is from the MTV TRL account.
inside the instagram egg is another, smaller egg, and inside that egg is another, even SMALLER egg and inside that egg is the smallest egg of all and inside that egg is your worst selfie, that one you deleted and forgot about
— MTV TRL (@TRL) February 2, 2019
Steak-umm also had something pretty funny to say about the egg before the big reveal. It makes you wonder how long they took in preparing that very specific gif.
when the instagram egg hatches during the "big game" (lol) tomorrow I will finally emerge as a sentient box of frozen beef but shhhh it'll be our little secret pic.twitter.com/SZ0DN6qdmg
— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) February 2, 2019
Thinking that the egg would just vanish after cracking, others were kind of happy to stop hearing about it. The A.V. Club’s Riverdale podcast being one of them.
When I hear the Instagram Egg is not long for this world: pic.twitter.com/CuMrMd3Kh3
— Dial M For Maple (@DialMForMaple) February 1, 2019
But others will never get the egg out of their mind. Especially since eggs are more or less everywhere.
Now all I can think about is that instagram famous egg pic.twitter.com/drL01G1YTn
— Kelly Leonard (@kellyleonardUGA) February 3, 2019
Even if that ad is the egg’s last, you have to admit. Not only were you not expecting this turnout, but you probably had no clue that the egg you liked on Instagram would suddenly be involved with an important cause.
It’s especially good, since the creators could have linked it with a retail company. Or, even a company that sells eggs.
There are vast monetization opportunities for the creator of the Instagram egg. In other words, the world is insane. https://t.co/krMoEhVLmq pic.twitter.com/FOacwS0MpG
— Ray Ho (@ray_s_ho) February 1, 2019
They may have made some money from it due to partnering with Hulu, but the intent is so much more pure than anyone could have realized. Our hats go off to Godfrey for setting up an incredible example. Now the question is, what will dethrone the egg?
