Well, there’s a headline I never saw myself writing. Hulu seems to be planning a major advertising blitz with the word_record_egg Instagram account, which shattered the record for most likes on a single picture with its first upload earlier this month. But as we all know, the brands can’t resist an absurd, silly stunt.
Yesterday the account teased an announcement planned for immediately after Super Bowl, promising that “all will be revealed” during the spot. Hulu itself has purchased a 30-second commercial for the big game, according to Variety, but so far has been mum about what’s in the spot.
The egg account has been teasing some kind of big reveal with subsequent photos showing cracks forming in its shell. Being the brand that ends up inside the stupid thing when it breaks open is apparently, if you can believe it (and I refuse to), the kind of exposure that companies can expect to pay as much as $10 million for, according to what VaynerMedia’s Nik Sharma told The Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz.
Did Hulu cough up that much? I’d really like to think not. Again, the number seems absurd, and the executives I’ve met at Hulu seem to be normal people who spend money — and Hulu burns through a lot of it — with at least some care. I’ve reached out to the company to ask, though.
The egg account already has over 9.8 million followers, so any sponsorship will certainly have a lot of eyes on it come Sunday night. Hulu recently dropped the monthly cost of its base subscription to $5.99 (down from $7.99), so I can understand the company wanting to push that price drop, but still. I doubt the record is going to get broken twice, and this commercial will almost certainly be lost on many people.
Lorenz says Jerry Media, the business built out from the popular FuckJerry account that comedians have been tearing into lately, has been involved in an unofficial capacity with the egg account. At one point Jerry Media tried to coordinate an “Impeach Trump” proclamation to be the egg’s inner mystery. Just the type of unmissable, divisive gesture that everyone wants to see after their team either comes out victorious or comes up short. Need to Impeach, the organization that was pitched on the idea, ultimately declined. So in stepped Hulu, it seems.
Hulu’s Instagram account now has “Get crackin’ ” as its bio. The world_record_egg says you’ll be able to “watch it first, only on Hulu” after the game. The Super Bowl itself is free to stream from CBS and the CBS Sports app — but that hasn’t stopped all of the internet TV services like Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV Now from heavily promoting the Pats/Rams contest.