Viral sensations–we love, hate and question them. What they have in common is the mystery behind their overnight success.
In today’s interwebs, it’s all about the sharing of content on any social platform: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Youtube and the list can go on.
As the saying goes, “May the force be with you” and by force, of course, I am talking about the social fandoms. What is a fandom you say? Well, it is a group of fans that follow their preferred public figure, show or movie.
They can also be the stereotypical hormone crazed teenage girls, but, in all seriousness anyone can be apart of a fandom whether it be in comic books, movies, music, shows.
Looking back on the history of past success stories like Justin Beiber, Honey Boo Boo, and the girl who twerked and caught on fire back in 2012. Wow! I think that whole sentence combined just lowered my IQ.
But one thing all these have in common is the amount of supporters behind their success. You may know him as “ Alex from Target”, but, according to “7 Questions About Alex from Target You Were too Embarrassed to Ask” by Kelsey Mckinney, his real name is Alex Christopher LaBeouf. Sixteen years old, he lives in Frisco and works at the Target in Frisco.
Also, in the article Kelsey states that there are two sides to this interesting story. The first one is that two teenage girls age 15 named Alanna Page and Brooklyn Reiff visited the Target where Alex worked and tweeted a picture captioned “cute bag boy at Target”.
Then, @auscalum a 5 Seconds of Summer fan of course retweeted the picture with a caption of “Yoooooo”. It later received a hundred retweets and replies that was one of the scenarios of this overnight success.
The second scenario was company Breakr Nation took ownership of his popularity.
According to Kelsey’s article, Breakr Nation stated on their Linkedin “We wanted to see how powerful the fangirl demographic was by taking an unknown good-looking kid and Target employee from Texas to overnight viral internet sensation,” Dil-Domine Jacobe Leonares, founder and CEO of Breakr Nation. 7: 49pm – November 4, 2014 Alex tweets “
Apparently, there is a company trying to take credit for how the pic taken of me went viral.” These two sides of the overnight popularity of Alex was aired on television, social media, radio, and reported on multiple sites. “Alex from Target” definitely made headlines.
The second scenario, if true, raises an important question: has business marketing and advertising revolutionized the way we as the consumers are sold products? I’d say if this scenario is indeed true of being a marketing scheme of Breakr Nation it’s brilliant.
It is using the consumers act towards another market to their advantage.
Also, taking the idea from other competitors, but building off it and making it more appealing to a certain audience. Having the people talk as well as questioning “Alex from Target” keeps in mind the word “Target” that in itself is a promotion of spoken word with shares and media attention.
It was a genius idea because there was no need for investing in promotional areas. There is also the question does this new Marketing scheme violate privacy and consent? Especially when the individual who is the face on the promotion is unaware.
That’s where the situation starts to get a little tricky. Why? Because the workers, before working, must have signed a contract of some sort to allow their work to use their photo for any work related activities. Then again, what do I know? I never worked at any major chain store. Alex mentions in several interviews on how Alex appeared on the Ellen Degeneres talk show and was confused as to how everything happened so fast and unexpectedly.
Since then, Alex’s Twitter followers have grown in numbers to almost over half a million. It’s no kidding when they say everyone get’s their fifteen minutes of fame.
What’s In A Meme?
Memes have existed in real life before the invented of the internet. According to scientist Richard Dawkins who coined the term, the word meme is used to denote units of ideas that spread from person to person culturally.
According to Forbes, and there is no question here, the more obvious grammatical errors, or if part of the meme is cut off, the less likely it will be shared.
Commercially vs. Organically
Media producers create content with the intention that it goes viral.
Some individuals become memes unintentionally. In this case, Alex from Target memes would be applicable to both.
Memes that Succeed:
-Funny -Ironic-Offensive
Meme is short for the Greek word “mimeme” which translates as “imitated thing”
In Summer of 2014, The “Confused Girl’ Meme became one of the most highly used and manipulated memes, that seemed to have a use for every situation possible, on the Internet.
However, there was one person that didn’t find it funny at all. Alabama teenager Keisha Johnson (or Lisah Pretty depending on who is reporting) sued Instagram for $500 million for defamation of character as she was the unconsenting face behind the viral meme. However, it fell through as, according to Instagram’s Terms and conditions, people that use the site are responsible for the content that they share.
Jorge Pliego
Features Editor