Famous Instagram Egg

Here's What Famous Instagram Egg Was Really All About

Mental health, as it turns out

By Evann Gastaldo

Not the actual World Record Egg, but pretty close.   (Getty Images / Suradech14)

After a random picture of an egg smashed Kylie Jenner's Instagram record a month ago, people have wondered who or what is behind the account.
On Sunday night, they found out. The "world_record_egg" account, which goes by just EGG GANG on Instagram, posted the first picture Jan. 4, explaining in the caption that it hoped to rack up more likes than Jenner's former record-holding picture (current totals: more than 52 million likes for the egg, which goes by "Eugene"; more than 18 million for Jenner's picture of her then-newborn daughter). After that, it started posting photos of cracks slowly appearing on the egg. On Friday, in addition to the cracks, the egg was made to look like a football and the egg revealed that on Super Bowl Sunday all would become clear. In a video released on Hulu about an hour after the big game ended, the egg cracked completely—and delivered a message about mental health.

"Recently I've started to crack. The pressure of social media is getting to me," says the video, which can also now be seen on Instagram. It went on to urge anyone else who is struggling to "talk to someone." The Hulu video directed people to Mental Health America's website; the Instagram version directs them to the official #TalkingEgg website, which, in turn, offers links, organized by country, to various mental health resources, and encourages readers to submit new links via email. Vox called the twist ending to the egg story "positive and uplifting," but noted that some were confused and others were disappointed, calling the whole thing anticlimactic. The New York Times explains that London advertising creative Chris Godfrey developed the egg, and that he plans for it to eventually advocate for other important causes. See the Times for more on how the egg went viral.