# Why is "alex from target" so popular **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 8, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068 "2014-11-08T15:45:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/1 "2014-11-08T15:45:51Z")
Someone took a picture of him working at target, apparently everyone thought he was really good looking and it went viral. The thing is he just looks like a average guy to me, not really handsome or anything. He looked better in the ellen degeneres video interview but the photo itself that went viral was a low quality cell phone image where he just looks like a average guy, nothing special. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/2 "2014-11-08T16:09:34Z")
There’s [this](http://www.cnet.com/news/the-messy-claims-behind-alex-from-target/). ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/3 "2014-11-08T17:29:46Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > There’s [this](http://www.cnet.com/news/the-messy-claims-behind-alex-from-target/). I wasted a few precious minutes of my life reading that, and my question is: how does the “Breakr” guy actually make money off this “Alex” nonentity? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/4 "2014-11-08T17:40:48Z")
> [@sara20](#): > > Someone took a picture of him working at target, apparently everyone thought he was really good looking and it went viral. The thing is he just looks like a average guy to me, not really handsome or anything. He looked better in the ellen degeneres video interview but the photo itself that went viral was a low quality cell phone image where he just looks like a average guy, nothing special. because if the right people tell teens what to talk about on Twitter, they will do so. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/5 "2014-11-08T17:56:44Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I wasted a few precious minutes of my life reading that, and my question is: how does the “Breakr” guy actually make money off this “Alex” nonentity? If true, they would be a marketing firm. If a company could take an average person with no real markeable skills and instantly make them famous, well, that’d be an incredible calling card. Imagine what a company that could do that for a nobody could do for a somebody? What would somebody pay for that? Breaker (might be spelled wrong but I’m too lazy to open the article again) may or may not have had anything to do with this. But why let something that may be random just go to waste? If nobody else takes credit then why not just take credit themselves? On a side note, Alex works at my regular Target. I almost posted it in the “Famous people you’ve been within 20 feet of” but didn’t want to appear to be bragging 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/6 "2014-11-08T19:49:16Z")
Welcome to the world of viral marketing and search engine optimization. Companies will claim that they can turn nobodies into stars at the drop of a hat and the sad truth is that they’re all liars. OK, maybe 0.1% of their claims are actually true, but 99% are complete bullshit and the other 0.9% are marketers bandwagoning onto something that was already popular (for example, “Alex From Target”). I’m reminded of what William Goldman said about the movie industry: > [@](#): > > “Nobody knows anything… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” That goes triple for viral marketing and search engine optimization. It’s a guessing game. And if anyone claims to have cracked the code, then you know they’re a liar. ---
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/7 "2014-11-08T21:22:25Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > There’s [this](http://www.cnet.com/news/the-messy-claims-behind-alex-from-target/). That article appears to say that Breakr is trying to latch on to him fame and falsely take credit, so he may have gone viral “legitimately,” does anyone here think he is insanely good looking or anything in that picture? ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/8 "2014-11-08T21:29:50Z")
> [@sara20](#): > > That article appears to say that Breakr is trying to latch on to him fame and falsely take credit, so he may have gone viral “legitimately,” does anyone here think he is insanely good looking or anything in that picture? What does insanely good looking have to do with a video going viral? There are hamster videos that go viral. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/9 "2014-11-09T02:23:29Z")
If I could tell you why something goes viral, I would be worth buckets of money. No one can - many people try, some promise, but no one really knows. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/10 "2014-11-09T04:36:02Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > What does insanely good looking have to do with a video going viral? There are hamster videos that go viral. To be fair, those are some fine looking hamsters. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/11 "2014-11-09T04:52:48Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > What does insanely good looking have to do with a video going viral? There are hamster videos that go viral. That’s true, but I thought the whole point of this particular video going viral was that he was an exceptionally good looking young man. (I don’t see it either.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/12 "2014-11-09T04:54:19Z")
tweens don’t want exceptionally good looking, they want cute and non-threatening. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/13 "2014-11-09T04:58:14Z")
If Alex looks “average” to you, I think I’d like to visit your town. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/14 "2014-11-09T06:19:07Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > If Alex looks “average” to you, I think I’d like to visit your town. I wouldn’t call him “average,” but he’s pretty much normal hot. I know a couple guys who look like him. And, yes, those dudes do well with the ladies (even though one later discovered he was gay). But he doesn’t seem hot enough just to go viral on that alone. I’d expect there to be around 100 of people who look like him in ever city, and often at least one in the local Target. Not that I really can even quite understand the idea of going viral on hotness alone anyways. I’ve seen a quite a lot of gorgeous women in pictures, but never once have I thought “my friends have got to see this!” Plus, every guy I’ve seen teen girls go gaga over has had something other than hotness. Heck, the gay dudes I mentioned both sing, and it was after that that the ladies would swoon. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/15 "2014-11-09T13:15:30Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > If I could tell you why something goes viral, I would be worth buckets of money. No one can - many people try, some promise, but no one really knows. “viral” means “something which click-bait sites constantly shove in people’s faces and ‘entice’ people to talk about it on reddit and Gawker so they can say it’s ‘viral.’” ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/16 "2014-11-09T14:16:26Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > “viral” means “something which click-bait sites constantly shove in people’s faces and ‘entice’ people to talk about it on reddit and Gawker so they can say it’s ‘viral.’” Maybe I don’t travel in the right circles, but the only place I’ve noticed anything about this guy is discussion about it going viral. I’m happy not to be bombarded with things like this, but…did it really go viral before the news picked it up? Did any of you see it before that? I have enough clickbait and viral video lovers in my Facebook feed that I would have expected to have seen him at least once. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/17 "2014-11-09T14:49:50Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Maybe I don’t travel in the right circles, but the only place I’ve noticed anything about this guy is discussion about it going viral. I’m happy not to be bombarded with things like this, but…did it really go viral before the news picked it up? Did any of you see it before that? > > I have enough clickbait and viral video lovers in my Facebook feed that I would have expected to have seen him at least once. _shrug_ My 9 year old knew the phrase “Alex from Target” when I asked her about it, and she has neither a Facebook nor a Twitter. But apparently the girls at school are swooning. Like you, I haven’t seen anything outside of the reports that it’s a viral thing, but I’m not in the right demographic for it. As the former owner of more than one Tiger Beat magazine picture of River Phoenix which may or may not have been plastered all over my locker at school, I don’t see how this is either new or shocking. Young girls share pictures of cute boys; film at 11. The only difference now is that the girls have the technology to take and share the pictures without an editor or agent making the decision about which boys’ pictures they’ll be seeing. Frankly, I’d rather they swoon over a picture of a normal kid working hard at an attainable job, rather than rap stars and sparkly vampires. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/18 "2014-11-09T16:12:38Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > That’s true, but I thought the whole point of this particular video going viral was that he was an exceptionally good looking young man. Repeat after me… No one knows why anything that goes “viral” does so. And anyone who claims to know is a liar. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/19 "2014-11-09T16:36:10Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Repeat after me… > > No one knows why anything that goes “viral” does so. And anyone who claims to know is a liar. No one can predict what will go viral, but it may be easier to piece together after the fact, why it did. There was a trend of those " ridiculously attractive" photos- runner, mugshot, etc… So now the masses , for whatever reason decided they were ready for the next “ridiculously attractive” meme, and that photo popped up at exactly the right place and time for it to be the one to snowball. So even though it’s just a photo of any old typical not-ugly person working at target, he gets to be Johnny Bravo because he fit the suit ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068/20 "2014-11-09T18:07:52Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > No one can predict what will go viral, but it may be easier to piece together after the fact, why it did. There was a trend of those " ridiculously attractive" photos- runner, mugshot, etc… So now the masses , for whatever reason decided they were ready for the next “ridiculously attractive” meme, and that photo popped up at exactly the right place and time for it to be the one to snowball. So even though it’s just a photo of any old typical not-ugly person working at target, he gets to be Johnny Bravo because he fit the suit OK, but why this particular photo? Tracing it back to a source might be possible, but the tipping point will likely boil down to “a few popular people mentioned it.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-alex-from-target-so-popular/704068.md?page=2)