Even in an age when viral fame can come from a single video or well-timed tweet, Alex from Target's rise from regular teenager to public figure was positively meteoric.
Wait, what's that you say? You're telling us you actually don't know who Alex From Target is? You must be messing with us. Oh, you're serious? Jeez. Well, allow us to enlighten you. Alex from Target is …
Uh …
Well, he's Alex from Target! He has hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers! He's been on Ellen! His girlfriend gets angry mail from jealous folk!
What? What's that you're asking? "What has he done?" Oh, I mean he … he … had his photo taken. Yep. That's it.
The Kodak moment that changed it all
It was a normal day at a normal Target for a normal customer – but that all changed when the patron checked out – and began checking out the check-out boy. There, behind the counter, was a total dreamboat guy. It was like the council on boy bands had conferred and decided to dispatch one of its representatives to Target. Overcome by feeling, the patron took out her phone, snapped a picture of him doing his job, and posted it on Facebook with the following meaningful caption: "YOOOOOOOOOO."
That was it. That was all it took. The photo told its own story – that of a golden-haired, fresh-faced and, of course, wonderfully single* young man. As he started to gain fame, the world learned more about this pearly-toothed gift to one lucky checkout counter. So, here is what he know about him:
- His name is Alex Lee and he's 16, according to USWeekly.
- After the photo of him went viral, his Twitter followers catapulted from 144 to 600,000 in a few days.
- He's been a Target employee for roughly three months. Or has he?
Is it all a sham?
First they faked the moon landing and now they've faked Alex from Target. Or rather, some people are saying he's fake. In the wake of Alex's sudden popularity, a marketing company called Breakr – a business aimed at linking "fans with their fandom" – took credit for the whole Alex from Target thing, according to CNET.
"Truly, we never thought it'd go this far, but it proved that with a strong fan base — [if you] rally the fan girls, you can translate that following into a career," Breakr CEO Dil-Domine Jacobe Leonares told the publication.
A quick visit to Breakr's website reveals … not much. It's one of those indie rock-infused millennial websites that tells you absolutely nothing about the service being offered. "Being a fan is better together," the website proclaims. Word. So what do you guys do exactly?
Breakr's credibility – heck, its very existence – is being called into question, and it's looking increasingly unlikely that the company – if there is one – is behind Alex from Target. For his part, Alex said he's never heard of the company. And now even Leonares is playing down his company's role. But can you really blame Breakr for trying to piggyback off Alex from Target? After all, if Alex got famous from one photo, why can't Breakr get famous from just … lying?
*He is not single. We know this because we researched it. We actually took time to investigate Alex from Target's relationship status.
