Bad Luck Brian

Kyle Craven (born August 10, 1989), commonly known by his Internet nickname "Bad Luck Brian", is an American Internet celebrity known for his ubiquitous photo posted on Reddit in 2012, which quickly became a popular Internet meme.

Bad Luck Brian
Craven in the "Bad Luck Brian" photo he is known for
Born
Kyle Craven

(1989-08-10) August 10, 1989
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
EducationArchbishop Hoban High School
Alma materKent State University (BS)[1]
Known forBad Luck Brian meme

Origin

On January 23, 2012, at 2:15 UTC,[2] Ian Davies uploaded a yearbook photo to Reddit of his friend Kyle Craven.[3] Craven and Davies both attended Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio.[4] Craven stated that he rubbed his face with a sweater to redden it and adopted an obnoxious smile; however, the high school principal at the time had him retake the photo.[5]

Meme meaning

Bad Luck Brian is an image macro style of meme. His captions describe a variety of unlucky, embarrassing and tragic events. The photo quickly became popular on the image board 4chan, and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, depicting "a guy who can’t catch a break [...] a symbol for a stroke of hilarious bad luck".[3][6] The first meme included the text "Take Driving test. Gets first DUI".[7]

Kyle Craven

A Redditor claiming to be Bad Luck Brian attempted to do an AMA thread in the "Ask Me Anything" subreddit on April 11, 2012, but the thread was removed.[8] The moderator who removed the post left a lengthy comment explaining why, which received more than 35,000 downvotes, making it one of the most downvoted comments on Reddit of all time. Craven returned to a different Advice Animals subreddit on May 8 with an AMA thread.[8] The post received 24,722 upvotes and 2017 points overall. Craven works for his father's construction business building churches.[9][1]

Advertising

Bad Luck Brian was turned into T-shirts, stuffed animals and novelty items sold by Walmart and Hot Topic.[3] Volkswagen and other companies paid to use his picture in their advertising campaigns. In October 2018, Craven did a series of advertisements for McDonald's featuring the Bad Luck Brian character, which were featured on YouTube, Reddit, and Spotify.[10] Including licensing deals and merchandise, Craven estimates he made $20,000 within three years since 2015.[11]

References
  1. http://linkedin.com/in/kyle-craven-67987529
  2. "Bad Luck Brian". Reddit. Reddit. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  3. Contrere, Jessica (January 5, 2015). "Being Bad Luck Brian: When the meme that made you famous starts to fade away". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  4. "Washington Post profiles Cuyahoga Falls native behind 'Bad Luck Brian' meme". Cleveland.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  5. "Anatomy of a meme: The real story of Bad Luck Brian, his viral class portrait and the fleeting nature of online fame". National Post. January 6, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  6. "Back Luck Brian". Know Your Meme. Know Your Meme. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  7. "Quick Meme".
  8. "I Am Bad Luck Brian. AMA". Reddit.com. Reddit. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  9. Gidan, Jenn (January 6, 2015). "An Internet Meme's Real Life: Building Churches". Newser. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  10. McDonald's (2018-10-05), Trick. Treat. Win!: Bad Luck Brian | McDonald's, retrieved 2018-10-09
  11. Mary Kinney, "'Bad Luck Brian' meme brings in a big paycheck", "AOL", 2015-01-07


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