Do you remember this racist meme?
Photo Credit: Gawker
I don’t either, but the story behind it is as riveting as it is horrible.
Taiwanese model Heidi Yeh says she had a pretty solid career going for two years, modeling for big name companies like Sony and landing some great exposure.
Here she is in a floor display.
Photo Credit: BBC
Nobody books a gig for a meme. The shoot that birthed the meme was for a plastic surgery clinic.
The original caption for the ad read, “The only thing you’ll ever have to worry about is how to explain it to the kids.”
But, Yeh has never had plastic surgery, and the children were all photoshopped.
Photo Credit: BBC
The ad was only supposed to appear in one publication, but we know that’s not where the story ends.
Photo Credit: BBC
Somehow, the picture was used in an online ad, (despite a contract that didn’t allow for it), the meme happened, and a huge false backstory emerged where Yen was actually lying to her fake husband about having had plastic surgery.
This fictitious husband then sued his fake wife after the kids were born (presumably because they were not attractive) and won, according to the Internet.
For what!? False advertisement? After the third kid?
Things like logic don’t matter in the webosphere, and the story went viral so fast and hard that her fiance’s family and friends asked her about it.
Now, it’s time to get sad, because… (read more)
It also ruined her career.
Photo Credit: BBC
She doesn’t get any of the primo gigs she used to land, and she’s not sleeping too well, either. So, Yeh is speaking out, and she’s suing the companies that produced the ad and used the photo online. Go, girl.
Here she is in her interview with the BBC:
h/t: Good.is
Ever wonder what happens after regular people become memes and gain instant ‘internet fame’? Take for instance ‘Alex from Target‘ who became a national sensation when someone snapped a candid shot that went viral. Read more about 14 people who are now living as Internet Memes.
