Instagrammer mocked for taking fairy lights onto flight to create perfect picture
The lengths some Instagrammers will go to in order to capture the perfect snap are well documented, but a recent travel-related picture took things to new levels.
The shot in question shows a woman sitting on a plane in first-class, holding a glass of champagne and looking wistfully out the window. So far, so Insta.
What set off social media users, however, is the unusual lighting – the blanket covering her legs is strewn with fairy lights, presumably brought on the flight specifically for the purpose of setting up the photo.
A post shared by Harimao Lee (@harimaolee) on Aug 19, 2018 at 5:29am PDT
Twitter user Akinsoul shared the image with the caption, “What the actual f**k? Who in their right mind brings fairy lights on a plane?”
The original post was published by Hong Kong-based influencer Harimao Lee, who currently has 126,000 Instagram followers.
It was likely paid-for content for airline Cathay Pacific and appears on the Instagram channel #cathaycreators.
Lee captioned the image: “It was the long dark night during the flight from HK to Rome. Stargazing is one thing to do in the cabin”.
Twitter users mocked the photo, with Wayne Kwong commenting: “Trying to bring back the romance and glamour of first class air travel? Amazing [the] length[s] one can go to to get ‘likes’.”
Stephen Hannigan added: “I fear for the future of humanity”.
Self-proclaimed “avgeeks” (people that know a lot about aviation) have also pointed out that Lee is sitting backwards on the footrest, rather than on her seat, in order to get the right “look” for the background of the shot.
Aviation expert Scott Bateman tweeted: “She’s sitting in the seat backwards,” while travel writer Cynthia Drescher wrote: “Awful lot of effort to make an already great seat (J, CX 77W) look Insta-glam. (She’s sitting backwards/in the footwell, brought fairy lights, and has vacant side stare (at what?) down pat).”
The original Instagram post received more than 15,000 likes and 180 comments – so clearly taking your own lighting on a flight is the key to Insta-success. Wannabe influencers, take note.
