Social Media Influencers Mural

Overview

Social Media Influencers Mural refers to a piece of street art in Los Angeles in front of which only people with over 20,000 social media followers may be photographed. It is guarded by a security man to enforce this rule. After being discovered in June of 2018, it was criticized and mocked online for being indicative of the ridiculousness of social media culture. The mural appears to be a viral marketing stunt orchestrated by an upcoming television show by the name Like and Subscribe.

Background

On June 25th, 2018, Twitter user and Vice writer Justin Caffer tweeted his discovery of the mural, gaining over 5,300 retweets and 18,000 likes (shown below).

Developments

After the discovery of the mural, multiple news organizations covered it, including CBS,^[1] Inverse,^[2] and Nylon.^[3] Social media users expressed their outrage at the mural. User @samsanders expressed he hoped the mural was "crawling with bedbugs" (shown below, left). Many compared the mural to a Black Mirror plot (example shown below, right).

Other Twitter users thought the mural resembled a stunt from prank/social experiment show Nathan For You. User @pjfreese made the comparison (shown below, left). However, over the course of the day, it was discovered that the mural was set up by a group called @likeandsub, which appears to be an upcoming television show, leading many to speculate the mural is intended as a prank (shown below, right).

@LikeAndSub appears to be a project by noted internet comedians Brandon Wardell and Jack Wagner. Wagner posted on his Instagram that day celebrating the release of his new show by posing in front of the mural (shown below, left). Also, the Twitter avatar for @likeandsub features Wardell in the image (shown below, right).

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References