Visual Culture

The egg that became Instagram’s most-liked image was created by a 29-year-old adman.

Benjamin Sutton
Feb 5, 2019 5:22PM, via New York Times

The mystery of the viral egg has been cracked. London-based advertising agency creative Chris Godfrey, 29, has come forward as the creator of @world_record_egg, an Instagram account that set out last month to unseat a Kylie Jenner photo as the most-liked image on the social media platform. By the middle of January, he and two friends who helped on the project—Alissa Khan-Whelan and C.J. Brown—had succeeded. As of this writing, the image has racked up more than 52.3 million likes, compared to the paltry 18.7 million who have double-tapped Jenner’s photo announcing her daughter’s birth. The egg’s 10 million followers, however, pale in comparison to Jenner’s whopping 125 million.

“An egg has no gender, race or religion. An egg is an egg, it’s universal,” Godfrey, who works for The&Partnership, told the New York Times. He also revealed that despite having “no gender,” the egg had been affectionately christened Eugene. He added that the project was partly inspired by wanting to best Jenner. “Could something as universal and simple as an egg be great enough to beat that record?”

Though it may have been created out of a spirit of competition, the egg has become a vessel for more altruistic messages. Godfrey and company partnered with Hulu to create a commercial timed to the Super Bowl that addressed mental health issues and directed those in need to the organization Mental Health America.

“People have fallen in love with this egg, and Eugene the egg wants to continue to spread positive messages,” Khan-Whelan told the Times.

BS
BS
Benjamin Sutton