Distracted Boyfriend is an Internet meme based on a 2015 stock photograph by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem. Social media users started using the image as a meme at the start of 2017 as a way to depict different forms of disloyalty.
The stock image was taken in the city of Girona in Catalonia, Spain, in mid-2015. Guillem told Wired magazine that he and the stock image models planned on having a session which would represent the concept of infidelity "in a playful and fun way". The boyfriend and girlfriend in the photograph are known by their stage names "Mario" and "Laura".
The image was uploaded to Shutterstock with the caption: "Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend and looking amazed at another seductive girl." Calls a spade a spade.
The first known use of the stock image as an internet meme was posted to a Turkish progressive rock facebook group in January 2017. The post labeled the man as PHIL COLLINS, who is being distracted from PROGressive rock by POP music.
The meme started going viral on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook on 19 August 2017, after a Twitter user @SadStalinist posted the photograph with the man labeled "The Youth" being distracted from his girlfriend "Capitalism" by "Socialism". The girlfriend in the meme generally came to represent something that one is supposed to do, and the woman wearing red came to represent something more desirable or riskier.
The models "Mario" and "Laura" were caught somewhat off guard by the phenomenon, saying that they first learned about the memes based on their photograph when people started posting them to their social media accounts.
Guillem told The Guardian on 30 August 2017: “I didn't even know what a meme is until recently. The models discovered the meme on social media and they told me about it. None of us could imagine the media repercussion that it has reached right now."
The meme made various lists of the top memes of 2017, a year when the US news was filled with hurricanes, shootings and political drama. Nathan Heller wrote in The New Yorker on 11 December 2017 that "the delight of the Distracted Boyfriend meme was not unlike the perverse pleasure taken by Distracted Boyfriend himself: it allowed America to turn its attention away from much more important commitments”.
The Washington Post listed the meme on its "Meme Hall of Fame of 2017", calling it "the ultimate stock photo meme with endless permutations".
In a further sign of legitimacy, The New York Times published the meme in its Business section on 29 May 2019, referencing the proposed merger of Renault and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The boyfriend is labeled as "Renault", who is being distracted by "Fiat Chrysler" with his girlfriend "Nissan".
"Mario" and "Laura" have received a lot of attention as a result of the proliferation of the Distracted Boyfriend image, but they've remained consummate professionals as stock image models. And indeed, there are many more stock images starring one or the other or both of them in various vignettes. Comedy video creators Funny or Die put this to good use by compiling them into a video called “Distracted Boyfriend Revealed: The Complete Story Behind The Meme”. You can watch it HERE.
Finally, Laura who, like Mario, has chosen to remain anonymous, turned up in Australia as the woman in a 2019 Opal travel card advertisement … spotted by a eagle-eyed Reddit user who titled his post: "Meme Girl is now Metro Girl". The stock photo choice would have been no accident, and represented a smart bit of ambience-chasing by Transport for NSW.
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Distracted_boyfriend
theguardian.com/media/2017/aug/30/the-team-that-made-the-distracted-boyfriend-meme-have-split-up
washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2017/12/28/trending-meme-hall-of-fame-of-2107/
newyorker.com/culture/likes/the-distracted-boyfriend-memes-perverse-pleasure-in-2017
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7097807/Model-famous-starring-distracted-boyfriend-meme-Sydney-Trains-Opal-ad.html
Images
1. REMO as Distracted Boyfriend
2. Distracted Boyfriend stock photo. Photo: Antonio Guillem for Shutterstock.
3. Turkish progressive rock Facebook group: PHIL COLLINS, being distracted from PROGressive rock by POP music, January 2017
4. @SadStalinist twitter post: The Youth, Capitalism and Socialism, 19 August 2017
5. Distracted Boyfriend memes via Google search
6. Distracted Boyfriend meme meme
7. Video: “Distracted Boyfriend Revealed: The Complete Story Behind The Meme” Funny Or Die, 2019
8. 2019 Transport for NSW Opal travel card advertisement starring "Laura"
