World Record Egg: creator of record breaking Instagram post revealed to be London ad man

The man behind the Instagram Egg, the world’s most popular post with over 52 million likes, was revealed today as a London advertising professional.

Chris Godfrey, 29, who works for creative agency The & Partnership in central London, said he posted the picture as an experiment to see if “something as universal and simple as an egg” could beat the then-record breaking image of Kylie Jenner’s new born daughter Stormi.

Mr Godfrey posted the image on January 4 with the caption: “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.”

It now has over 52 million likes, with the account - world_record_egg - followed by 10 million people around the world.

Speaking to the New York Times, Mr Godfrey said he picked an egg because: “An egg has no gender, race or religion. An egg is an egg, it’s universal.”

Mr Godfrey has since enlisted the help of two friends Alissa Khan-Whelan, 26 and CJ Brown, 29, to help run the egg account.

Ms Khan-Whelan told the New York Times they decided to “put any speculation to bed” by revealing their identities now.

The trio, who live in south east London, spoke to the American publication as the egg featured in a commercial aired during the Super Bowl last night.

Shown on streaming service Hulu, the clip shows the egg cracking under the pressure of being famous in an advert for Mental Health America, a non-profit organisation based in Alexandria, Virginia.

The advert reads: “Hi, I’m the world_record_egg. (You may have heard of me.) Recently I’ve started to crack. If you’re struggling too, talk to someone.”

In the past two weeks, several pictures of the egg with various cracks on it were posted to Instagram as a campaign teaser.

Mr Godfrey said to the publication the past few weeks had been “crazy” and a “real journey” - and said he was determined to use its success for good.

“It’s not really about me,” he said. “It’s just about the egg and sort of where we can take it and what we can do with it.”

However, he did admit the success had been a “fluke.”

“But it’s a fluke that caught the world’s attention,” he said. “It’s what you do with that attention that counts.”