Man who posted the most liked Instagram photo of all time said it was a ‘fluke’

The man behind the most liked Instagram photo of all time has said the whole thing was a 'fluke'.

As we all well know, the meteoric rise of TikTok has seen most people turn their attention to how to get the most views on their short videos.

But just a few years back, the Kardashian/Jenner clan continued to reign as the queen's of social media.

And one man wanted to change that - and he did so with nothing but a simple egg.

world_record_egg/Instagram

Just in case your memory needs refreshing, in 2019, Kylie Jenner smashed the Instagram record for most liked post after sharing a photo of her newborn baby Stormi's tiny hand holding her thumb.

The post went on to earn almost 19 million likes - but this was all set to change thanks to the genius thinking of Chris Godfrey, an advertising executive from London, and his pals Alissa Khan-Whelan and CJ Brown.

After noticing the record-breaking feat, they decided to hatch a plan by seeing if they could knock Kylie off the podium with nothing but a picture of an egg.

Nothing else - no decoration, no frills or surprises. Just an egg amongst a white background.

Alongside the image, they wrote: "Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this."

And much to everyone's surprise, the plan worked - soon enough, the picture rose to online fame and quickly toppled the influencer from the top spot.

At the time, the post received 19 million likes, but this figure soon jumped to over 50 million. Pretty impressive, eh?

But the story doesn't end there. Shortly after the image first came into existence, two more photos appeared on the same account showing the famous egg starting to crack.

world_record_egg/Instagram

Many were left wondering just what this could mean, but they didn't have to wait long for an answer.

Days after the mysterious posts, the world found out that the egg was cracking under the weight of pressure from social media fame and it was all part of a publicity campaign for Mental Health America.

In an advert aired during the 2019 Super Bowl on Hulu, the egg (complete with a little face and everything) said: "I'm the world record egg (you may have heard of me).

"Recently I've started to crack. The pressure of social media is getting to me."

It added: "If you're struggling too, talk to someone. We got this," before highlighting the contact details for the mental health organisation (mentalhealthamerica.net).

Back in 2019, Chris - who was 29 years old at the time - spoke to The New York Times about the stunt and how it went on to become a viral sensation.

Prior to this, Andrew Essex, chief executive and founder of Plan A, a creative holding company, told the outlet: "The fact that they were able to get a lot of people to look at a picture of the egg - it was the ultimate anomaly, just a complete freak event."

Kylie Jenner/Instagram

He added: "This is the quintessential fluke. It’s not replicable. It’s not replicable and it’s not sustainable. With all due respect."

Although Chris agreed with the statement, he said: "But it’s a fluke that caught the world’s attention. It’s what you do with that attention that counts."

And I think you'll agree that they certainly used the egg's power for good - cracking stuff.