Earlier today, Blake Lively nuked her entire Instagram and started following just 36 people, all of them named Emily Nelson.
It’s an elaborate marketing stunt for her upcoming film, A Simple Favor, about a girl called Emily Nelson – played by Lively, duh – who goes missing, and her best friend Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) who goes hunting for her.
Lively, of course, is one of the biggest celebrities in the world, going from pretend-It girl Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl to an actual It girl and later movie star in real life. Regularly trolling and being trolled by her husband, Ryan Reynolds, doesn’t hurt either; you can file this couple under our “never ever allowed to break up or love is most certainly dead” list.
But since being followed on Instagram by one of the biggest stars on the planet doesn’t happen every day, we decided to slide into the Instagram DMs of every Emily Nelson to find out what that’s like.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @hope.for.emily)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson, 32, Nashville (Instagram: @emilyan3)
“I honestly didn’t recognise the name at first. I saw that a few of my high school friends followed her. So I thought it was a person I graduated with. I accepted the request and went to bed. When I woke up the next morning I had a friend message me with the article and my profile picture. It immediately clicked when I saw her picture! I’m a huge Gossip Girl fan! At first I thought maybe she had been hacked because she liked a few of my pictures. Then quickly realised it wasn’t a joke.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @treehouseemily)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide. Did post about it on Instagram, though.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiP3nHogue2/?taken-by=treehousemily
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emilyxnelson)
“Well I was in the gym and I saw the Instagram notification that she followed me and I literally dropped my weight on my phone and ended up cracking the screen! I was kinda freaked out because why would Blake follow me?? But then she sent me a super sweet DM! I ran around like a kid on Christmas morning for a good two hours just freaking out over the fact that she followed me lol.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily_nels0n)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson, 24, Missouri (Instagram: @emilyanne793)
“I just thought it was a bot until I saw she was verified. Then I was thinking about the last couple pictures I saw her post a game of ‘hangman’ and noticed the spaces matched up with the bio ‘what happened to Emily’. It’s a pretty unique marketing scheme.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @punkoutphan)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emilynelson12)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emnel626)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emnelsonn)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson, 28, Detroit, Michigan (Instagram: @emilynel5on)
“Today has been crazy trying to keep up with my new Instagram followers pouring in. I didn’t imagine ‘Emily Nelson’ would affect the lives of so many… I honestly thought this entire situation was a scam or a virus.. I immediately reset my password haha.. when I found out this excitement was all due to Blake Lively, I thought it was cool. Maybe I’ll go see the movie. Thanks Mom for naming me 🙂 I actually had a debate yesterday morning with my friends that my name wasn’t that common. That theory was quickly shut down.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emilyxnlson)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emilynelson8)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emilynelsonmua)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @einelson)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson, 20, Corona, California (Instagram: @emilayyy97)
“At first I thought her Instagram got hacked. And then when I learned that it was a clever little way to gain attention for her new movie, I was excited to be a part of it. I’ve loved Blake Lively for years. I’m a huge fan of her work in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and Gossip Girl.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily_nelsonn)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @_emilynelson_)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson, 37, Indian Harbour Beach, Florida (Instagram: @elnelson)
“Disbelief. I thought I was being pranked. Then after doing research and discovering she was promoting a new movie, I was flatted. I’ve always been a huge fan of Blake Lively.”
Emily Nelson, 24, Chino Hills, California (Instagram: @emilynelsonofficial)
“I didn’t think much of it. Once I did a little investigating and saw her cryptic pictures from the day before and saw she was only following other Emily Nelsons I got the idea it was for a role of some sort. I decided to have a little fun with the whole thing though…”
She slid into Blake‘s DMs… and Blake replied.
She also posted this on her Insta stories in response to the hundreds of randoms following her (uh, guilty). Absolutely fair play.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily0184)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @em.nelson)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emilynelson_1)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily_belson_)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson, 23, Calrsad, California (Instagram: @emilyjunee)
“I honestly just thought she was hacked and felt bad for her. When she liked a photo of me and my best friend I looked into it and realised it was for an upcoming movie called A Simple Favor. My friends and I watched and were big fans of Gossip Girl for years so as you can imagine we were pretty excited and will be going to see this movie together when it comes out in September.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @defygravity13)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily_nelson_16)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson, 24, Sydney, Australia (Instagram: @emmnelson)
“I thought she has to be hacked. [I found out it was legit] when I saw the news articles online.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiP0EVqBeSiwvx4yVxD3p9LmhG0YTVug423DZY0/?taken-by=nelsonemily
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @nelsonemily)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson, 22, Colorado (Instagram: @emnnelson)
“I thought she got hacked, or some kind of joke. When I realised it was for her new movie and it was real I was shocked. It’s so cool, unreal, that it is actually real.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @nelson_emily97)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson, 26, Box Elder, South Dakota (Instagram: @emilyk_nelson)
“I honestly thought it was a joke or some spam. I had to do some digging before I finally realised it was true. Lol it is definitely a clever way to advertise and promote the new movie she’s in. I just might have to go see it now. I’m still shocked though. Now I’m getting a ton of random people adding and messaging me on Instagram.”
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily_its_your_girl)
Accepted our follow. Didn’t accept the Insta slide.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @emily.nelsonnnn)
Didn’t accept our follow.
Emily Nelson (Instagram: @enelson02)
Didn’t accept our follow.
