Instagram Egg Breaks, Revealing Mental Health Campaign
A few weeks ago an egg appeared on Instagram. A completely nondescript, rather ordinary looking egg, under the name world_record_egg, with the aim of creating the individual Instagram post that has the most likes.
Within just a few hours, that photo of an egg surpassed Kylie Jenner’s previous world record photo with 18 million likes, raking in a spectacular 52.2 million likes to date. And until now, no one has known what on earth the egg is about.
Since the first image, another five posts have been made, all showing the egg starting to crack from the second image. Now the whole purpose of the egg has been revealed in the sixth post. According to USA Today, the big reveal came shortly after the final whistle of the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
As it turns out, the whole egg publicity stunt is to raise awareness for mental health. The final post showed the egg breaking, explaining that “the pressure of social media is getting to me.” Next the egg pointed out that anyone else feeling that same pressure should speak to someone about the stress they are feeling.
It finished by rebuilding himself into a solid egg, smiling, and saying “we got this.”
It ended by directing people to mentalhealthamerica.net, which is the home site of a nonprofit that has been running for over a century already, and is “dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and to promoting the overall mental health of all Americans.”
The organization is active in 41 states in the U.S. and over 200 affiliates working under its banner.
We’d like to thank #TalkingEgg for shining a limelight on #mentalhealth tonight with an important message. Not everyone chooses to #fightintheopen for mental health, but you did for the 1 in 5 Americans living with a mental health condition. Thank you, #EggGang! ?? pic.twitter.com/9KPlXG5re4
— Mental Health America (@MentalHealthAm) February 4, 2019
The big reveal came just days after the creator behind the idea, London-based ad exec Chris Godfrey, said that the egg would be getting an explanation for all its followers.
“The wait is over… All will be revealed this Sunday following the Super Bowl… Watch it first, only on @hulu,” the caption read on the previous picture of the egg, with a football’s laces sewn into it, posted on February 1.
Revealing the mental heath campaign, Godfrey teamed up with Hulu for the 30-second “mental health PSA” exclusively on the streaming network. While everyone is wondering just how much Hulu would have paid the Instagram celebrity for the ad, Godfrey and his two co-conspirators say they were more interested in putting the positive message out there than making a quick buck off it.
