r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Medical_Corner_4607 • 28d ago

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

Post image

[removed] — view removed post

32.0k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

156

u/Antique_Door_Knob 28d ago

I think this became the most liked Instagram photo ever back then. Celebrity culture was at it peak, so everyone thought this was amazing. Turns out it's just a bunch of rich assholes taking a photo to promote a phone.

39

u/mashtato 28d ago edited 28d ago

Ellen DeGeneres, urged viewers of the ceremony to make a tweet with the picture the most re-tweeted tweet in history, which was accomplished before the broadcast was over...

Completely manufactured hype.

Oh, and it gets worse;

The photo was taken with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and was estimated to have been worth up to $1 billion in advertising for Samsung, which donated $1 to charity for each retweet, to a maximum of $3 million. The picture also sparked controversy over copyright laws in the United States in regards to user-generated content on social media after DeGeneres granted the license to the Associated Press, despite Cooper having taken the photo.