The identity of the person (or persons, really) behind Pop Crave, Twitter/X's shockingly nimble pop culture-centric account, was never much of a mystery.
And, yet, the promise of unmasking them proved so titillating that it briefly blew up the internet in the vein of so many viral Pop Crave tweets.
If you aren't on the site once known as Twitter (or are over the age of 30), you may not be acquainted.
The utterly ubiquitous updates issued by Pop Crave and archrival Pop Base on celebrities, film, music, and greater pop culture effectively form Twitter's de facto news service, breaking timely stories as disparate as A-list break-ups and bills being signed into law.
It's been called the "ESPN of pop music," Gen-Z's Associated Press.
Pop Crave's posts are so swift that it may have actually been the first outlet to call America's 2020 Presidential election for Joe Biden.
As someone on Twitter so elegantly enthused, seeing the person presumed to be behind Pop Crave IRL is like "the Gossip Girl series finale for people with SSRI prescriptions."
The locus of it all was, appropriately, the 2024 People's Choice Awards' red carpet. There, Jenny Tuell filmed someone who she believed to be Pop Crave in the flesh.
Proof? Her TikTok video of a woman grabbing content of Carmen Electra that was then posted by Pop Crave from the same angle.
Tuell's TikTok really took off when it was reposted to Twitter. What else is there to say? The people crave Pop Crave.
The thrill makes sense, though.
It's fascinating to be reminded that there are human beings behind these automatons, for one
There's also such hunger for metacommentary on these omnipresent pop culture outlets — there's even a Pop Crave parody account, the often amusing and sometimes shockingly brusque @poo_crave — that glimpses behind their polished, perfunctory existences are deliciously rare.
Earlier this year, Highsnobiety reached out to Pop Crave and Pop Base for comment — Pop Base didn't reply and Pop Crave demurred. These books want to be judged by their covers alone.
It's funny because it's not terribly difficult to actually figure out who's all behind Pop Crave.
Despite a fairly barebones website, some of Pop Crave's staff is publicly listed on LinkedIn, including founder Will Cosme. In the past, Cosme even granted interviews.
The content-capturing woman in Tuell's video is presumably Pop Crave's "brand ambassador," Wilnette Ortega.
So, she is not Pop Crave.
And yet, in some way, she is. Not just because she creates content for its often-viral tweets but because, really, we are all Pop Crave.
Pop Crave is all of us, a mirror reflecting back societal obsessions with "stunning" red carpet photos and out-of-context quotes from interviews.
She is Pop Crave. I am Pop Crave. You are Pop Crave. We are all Pop Crave.
And, most importantly, Pop Crave recently followed us back on Twitter. Pretty slay, as the kids say.
