How A Picture of An Egg on Instagram Got 45.6 Million Likes

Did you hear about the post of an egg which amassed over 53 million likes on Instagram?

It overtook the previous most 'liked' post by Kylie Jenner (18 million likes)?

The Egg

The Instagram account @World_record_egg intriguingly posted a picture of an egg back in January 2019. It was recently revealed to be promotion for the launch of a cyber-bullying charity. What an amazing achievement for an egg!

So how did a picture of an egg manage to receive so much attention?

Cleverly, they used society’s obsession with popular culture to create a buzz, and boy did it work! The Instagram post openly claimed that its sole purpose was to amass more likes than Kylie Jenner (of Kardashian fame) and with that, it created a community of volunteers who were only too happy to oblige with the request.

The Fyre Festival

This isn’t the first time that the pulling power of celebrities has been used to create a furore. The ill fated Fyre Festival, (now a documentary on Netflix), a new and exclusive event in the Bahamas, promised live performances, celebrities, phenomenal catering and luxury accommodation, but delivered only misery to thousands of people who flocked to the Bahamas and were instead, left stranded with little shelter, food or way out.

The Fyre Festival which was the first of its kind, managed to sell out with the help of supermodels and celebrities, who were paid to promote the event on their Instagram page.

The instagram posts from the Fyre Festival, which featured an image of a single orange tile, did their magic and turned a little known festival into a surprising overnight success. However, the events that followed of the now infamous festival prompted Instagram to introduce stronger guidelines to ensure more transparency about paid promotion work.

This goes to show just how influential celebrities can be but it also calls into question the efficacy of what is posted by influencers and how organic, said promotional posts are. Social media platforms are increasingly tightening the loopholes on paid promotion but is it enough or are the new rules just tiresome? You decide.

One thing is for sure though, eggs are definitely worthy of 53 million likes.