From humble beginnings, the "world_record_egg" has always had lofty aspirations. Breaking Kylie Jenner's previously held record for the most liked photo on Instagram was only the start, and not long after, cracks soon began to form on the surface of the egg's shell, soon spawning a litany of theories about what could possibly lay inside.
Reports began to circulate that the account's big reveal was being shopped around to a variety of non-profits and corporations, including the Need to Impeach campaign, which was reportedly pitched on the idea by Fyre Fest huckster Jerry Media. Factor in a $10 million valuation by VaynerMedia exec Nik Sharma with the fact that companies like Grubhub and Burberry had already tried to cash in on the egg's viral moment, and it looked like an innocuous little egg jpeg was on the precipice of becoming 2019's most lucrative SponCon opportunity yet. Well, now the wait is over and it turns out that the reason behind the egg's cracks is (drumroll please): mental health.
In a video posted to the account today, the popular egg sought to use its platform to open up a broader conversation surrounding mental illness. "Recently I've started to crack," the egg prefaces before going into an incredibly self-aware PSA. "The pressure of social media is getting to me. If you're struggling too, talk to someone." The video then directs viewers to head over to talkingegg.info which turns out to be a directory for different mental health hotlines and services available worldwide.
Can't exactly say we saw it coming — the whole thing reads like a scrapped Nathan For You plot — but we aren't exactly mad either. In the end, the egg didn't choose to sell its fame for a big payout, but rather used its platform and visibility to highlight a worthy cause. Isn't that all we want from celebrities in 2019?
The world today is overflowing with cynicism, and while the announcement of Disney's Chicken Little 2 or Bernie Sanders dressed in a chicken costume emerging from the egg to announce a run for president would surely have been entertaining, it would have missed the whole point of the egg. The egg is wholesome.
The whole world record egg phenomenon is silly by design and revels in its own stupid simplicity. Sure we can see the egg as evidence that fame is ultimately a hollow pursuit and that popularity is often more arbitrary than we would like to admit, but just like how it took you less than a second to double tap that image the first time you saw it on your feed, odds are you probably didn't give it that much thought. Using a massively popular platform to open up a broader discussion about a taboo topic is objectively laudable. Couple that with the fact that the site the account directs followers to is an open source list of global resources without a clear sponsor promoting one service over another, and it becomes easy to see that there really aren't any ulterior motives other than helping those who need it. At the end of the day you might feel a little let down by the hype but if you think about it, how could you possibly stay mad at an egg?
Photo via Instagram