Instagram’s World Record Egg Mystery Cracked, Hulu Pays for Mental-Health PSA

By Todd Spangler

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The talking egg that dethroned Kylie Jenner with the most-liked post on Instagram was a project created by three British ad execs — who teamed with Hulu for a 30-second public-service announcement promoting mental-health awareness.

The Instagram World Record Egg on Friday teased a big reveal a following the Super Bowl, to debut exclusively on . In the spot, which hit Hulu’s service at 8 p.m. PT Sunday, the egg literally cracks and collapses, ostensibly due to the stress of being Instagram-famous — and then directs users to talkingegg.info , a site with links to mental-health orgs around the world.

“Recently I’ve started to crack. The pressure of social media is getting to me,” the egg says in the spot, which also was posted on its Instagram account Monday . “If you’re struggling too, talk to someone. We got this.”

The egg, dubbed “Eugene,” was created by London-based ad exec Chris Godfrey, who was curious to see if a picture of an egg could become a social-media star. He then worked with two friends in the biz, C.J. Brown and Alissa Khan-Whelan, to maintain the account, the trio told the New York Times . Eugene now has more than 10 million followers, and the original Jan. 4 post now has over 52 million likes.

How much Hulu paid the team wasn’t revealed; the three proprietors of the account told the Times they’re more interested in promoting positive social messages than cashing in on the egg’s fame. Hulu’s deal with the World Record Egg creators was brokered by Nick Tran, a former Samsung exec who joined Hulu last year as VP of brand and culture marketing , per the NYT report.

During CBS’s LIII broadcast, Hulu also debuted the trailer for “The Handmaid’s Tale” season 3 .