About
Alex From Target is a nickname given to an American teenage cashier who rose to global viral fame on Twitter for his apparent charming look after an anonymous customer tweeted a picture of him scanning and bagging items at a Target retail store in Texas. Since entering circulation in early November 2014, the hashtag #AlexFromTarget quickly became a worldwide trending topic and went on to inspire several novelty accounts and fan art image macros on Instagram and Tumblr.
Origin
On November 2nd, Twitter user @auscalum[1] tweeted a picture of a Target employee wearing the name tag “Alex” and bagging items behind the cashier. In the following 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 2,000 favorites.[2]
YOOOOOOOOOOpic.twitter.com/eknsxBlx38
— rims (@auscalum) November 2, 2014
Spread
Within the 24 hour period on November 2nd, the hashtag #AlexFromTarget was mentioned more than one million times on Twitter[3] while the keyword “Alex From Target” was searched over 200,000 times on Google.[4] Soon, Twitter users began looking for information about the subject in the photo, ultimately leading to the identification of his Twitter handle @acl163.[5] In that same time period, Alex garnered more than 250,000 followers.
On the morning of November 3rd, Target’s official Twitter account posted an image of an employee’s tag featuring the name Alex in support of the overnight phenomenon, which gained over 10,000 retweets and 15,000 favorites in less than six hours.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
[not yet available]
External References
[1]Twitter – @Auscalum’s Tweet
[2]Twitter – Tweet Results for #AlexFromTarget
[3]Topsy – Social Analytics for #AlexFromTarget
[4]Google Trends – Hot Searches #7 / Alex From Target
[5]Twitter – @Acl163’s Account
[6]CNN– Today’s Internet star: Alex from Target
[7]Daily Mail – Who is ‘Alex from Target’? Anonymous store worker wins an army of online fans after his picture hit Twitter
[8]International Business Times – Who Is Alex From Target? Netizens Trend Twitter Phenom Du Jour
[9]Twitter – Tweet Results for #tbofromthegroovysmoothie
[10]Twitter – Tweet Results for #bettyfromwalmart
[11]Gawker – Who Is Alex From Target, and Why Is Teen Twitter Obsessed With Him?
[12]Mashable – ‘Alex From Target’ meme turns regular employee into Internet superstar
[13]USA Today – ‘Alex from Target’ rises to Internet fame
[14]Twitter – @Target’s Tweet
[15]Tumblr – #KieranFromTMobile
[16]Twitter – #MattFromRedRobin