Instagram egg stars in surprise mental health advert

The egg which beat Kylie Jenner’s record to become the most-liked post on Instagram has “cracked” in a surprise video released to raise awareness of mental health.

The photo first appeared on an account called world_record_egg on 4 January, along with a caption urging users to help make the humble egg more popular than Jenner’s photo of her baby, which has been liked 18.7 million times since it was posted in February 2018.

Within days, the stock image had beaten Jenner’s record as people from around the world got behind the quirky campaign. At the time of writing, the egg - named Eugene - has more than 52 million likes.

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On Sunday night, shortly after millions of Americans tuned into the Super Bowl, streaming platform Hulu released a short clip starring Eugene.

“Hi, I’m the world record egg. (You may have heard of me.)”, read the captions on the 30-second video. “Recently I’ve started to crack… The pressure of social media is getting to me.”

“Eugene” urges viewers struggling with mental health issues to talk to someone. The clip ends with a link to a website which lists mental health resources around the world.

Reaction on social media was mixed, says Vox. “While many people reacted positively to the promotion, others felt it was an anticlimactic letdown”, although mental health charities applauded the stunt.

Chris Godfrey, a 29-year-old advertising executive from London, has outed himself as the creator of the viral sensation, which he made with two friends in the industry.

The involvement of an advertising agency has led some sources, including Buzzfeed, to question whether the campaign’s meteoric success was as organic as it first appeared. However, the agency has denied being the originator of the idea.

One thing is clear, however: viral exposure can turn even the simplest memes into serious money-makers. Nik Sharma, head of direct-to-consumer business at digital agency VaynerMedia, told The Atlantic that the opportunity to “hatch” from the egg was “worth at least $10 million” to brands.