Photo of Tiny Tree Has Become 5th Most-Liked Photo on Instagram — All About the Viral Campaign
A photo of a tiny tree has quickly become one of the most-liked photos on Instagram of all time, and it’s all because of a very clever — and Earth-friendly! — viral campaign.
In honor of Earth Day, tentree — a sustainable clothing company whose mission is to plant trees for every item sold — launched an Instagram campaign on April 22, which they hoped would cause a stir on social media.
The campaign centers on an image of a tiny tree, which was shared on social media alongside a powerful message: For every 10 likes the post receives, tentree promises to plant one tree at dedicated planting sites in West Papua, Indonesia.
While the company initially hoped the viral campaign would result in 5 million likes — which would enable them to plant 500,000 trees — they were completely blown away by the response to the post.
Tentree originally had a goal of getting the 5 million likes by Friday, April 26, but it only ended up taking 24 hours.
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As of Thursday, the post has been liked over 14,200,000 times and is currently the fifth most-liked photo on Instagram.
Teetree’s post is currently ranked behind a series of sweet bikini photos Selena Gomez posted while celebrating her friend’s bachelorette party earlier this year, the last photo the late XXXTentacion posted before his death, the first photo Kylie Jenner shared of her daughter Stormi, and of course, the single brown egg that broke the internet in January.
A rep for the brand points out to PEOPLE that the tree’s popularity has likely gotten a boost from a handful of celebrities who have joined in liking the image, which includes Billie Eilish, Anne Winters, Kayli Carter, Johanna Braddy and Stephen Boss. Additionally, Minka Kelly, Rosario Dawson and Gisele Bündchen all follow the brand.
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Since teetree easily achieved their initial goal, the company has set a new challenge. Now the company has pledged to plant 1 million trees if the post gets 20 million likes by Friday — which is just 24 hours away (and also happens to be Arbor Day).
“We are absolutely blown away by the response to our Earth Week campaign starting on #EarthDay, and cannot thank the social media universe enough for helping us reach our initial goal of 500,000 trees in UNDER 24 HOURS!” an updated post for the caption reads. “We’ve dug deep looking for ways to keep the momentum going and plant more trees, and we can’t wait to see if together, we can get to our new goal to plant an additional 500,000 trees for a max total of 1 million trees. Let’s do this!”
