Lionel Messi triumphantly lifting high the FIFA 2022 World Cup trophy is today the most liked picture in Instagram. The post got 10 million likes in its first 39 minutes and has since amassed a staggering 75 million. However, and perhaps even more astonishing, is that until Lionel Messi shared this memorable moment the most liked picture in Instagram was a stock image of an unexceptional, ordinary, chicken egg.
The egg was posted by Chris Godfrey, co-founder of integrated agency Happy Yolk. He posted the picture with a caption expressing a clear intention. “Let’s set a world record together. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner. We got this.” And what do you know, nine days later, the egg topped Kylie’s snapshot of her newborn daughter, Stormi. Reflecting on the achievement, Chris wrote, “This is madness. What a time to be alive.”
“The math was there.”
What is that inspired common people to rally and break a record held by a member of our cultural elite? Perhaps this phenomenon might intrigue sociologists. From a marketing perspective, Alissa Khan, co-founder of Happy Yolk, saw it as an attainable goal and approached it as a marketing experiment. “Kylie Jenner had 18 million likes, but there were more than 18 million people out there who’d want to go up against her. The math was there.”
At the heart of it all, the success of the experiment likely boils down to its anti-establishment nature. In the “us against them” clash that was set up the egg made an extraordinarily good picture choice because of how ordinary it is. Let that sink in, in the race for likes a photograph of an egg can compete with a triumphant Lionel Messi lifting the FIFA cup and Kylie Jenner sharing her private life.
mariano p
