By Abby Koch–In the past week, there has been a scramble for the most liked photo on Instagram, ending with a simple photo of an egg beating out previous top spot holder Kylie Jenner.
The Instagram account @world_record_egg posted the photo of the egg during early January. The caption had a simple message of “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram.” Since the posting, the photo has accumulated over 50 million likes and is still growing.
Jenner sat at the top with over 18.5 million likes on a photo of her daughter Stormi. Jenner responded to the picture with a video of her cracking an egg on hot concrete with the caption “Take that little egg.”
Dave Madsen, chair of the Department of Mass Communication, has his own explanation for why the egg has so many likes. “You set it up as ‘come on, be a part of this big thing’ and be one of the people who made the egg go to number one on Instagram,” stated Madsen. He went on to talk about how it was also the person who posted to think it would be fun to post a random picture to overtake the most liked photo on Instagram.
The people behind the egg tagged numerous verified accounts to get the attention it has now. The majority of these tagged accounts cover memes and pop culture in the content they release like Buzzfeed and LADBible. Many of these accounts would create their own spinoff based on the egg.
Whether or not tagging verified accounts was the reason for the egg’s popularity, Instagram users have their own reasons why the egg is popular. “Today with meme culture it probably became a joke to have an egg replace Kylie Jenner,” stated Grace Russman, a sophomore advertising major. Russman added, “She is so famous and people thought it was so funny.”
Others have a more negative reason on why the post went viral. Tim Cohoon, a senior business administration and advertising major, commented, “People have nothing else to do besides sit on their asses and go through Instagram.”
TMZ released an article claiming that Supreme Patty and his crew were behind the egg posting and account. The egg has said otherwise, putting on their Instagram story, “We’re still anonymous. Fake News.”
Since receiving all this fame and 6 million new followers on Instagram, the egg has expanded its dominance. The account is now selling official merchandise with the saying “I LIKED THE EGG.” The account has also hinted at phase two coming soon, announced with an Instagram story post saying “we’re only getting started.”
Leave a Reply