is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
The Ring is a fantastic horror film that still gives me the chills. I can easily recall the movie’s iconic poster, which features a white ring on a black background and a creepy title font — I didn’t see the movie until years after it first released, but even the thought of it frightened me. So I’m very confused as to why Instagram picked a similar vibe for the debut of Instagram Rings, a new “award” that’s intended to celebrate creators and creativity.
Instagram has assembled a panel of judges, which includes Spike Lee, Marc Jacobs, Marques Brownlee, and, uh, Instagram head Adam Mosseri, to “nominate their favorite creators and vote for who they think deserves a spot on the final list.” The creators that win get a real, physical ring, and on their Instagram profile, they’ll get a special golden ring that appears around their profile picture, will be able to customize their profile backdrop color, and can “put their own twist” on the like button, according to Meta. The first winners will be announced “soon.” (A promotional video includes an October 16th date without context, so I’m presuming that’s when they’ll be revealed).
But there are still a lot of questions about the awards themselves. What is the criteria for the award? How many people will be honored? Is this a one-time thing, or something Instagram plans to do on a regular basis? How long will creators keep the perks on their profiles? Meta says the award celebrates “those who aren’t afraid to take creative chances and do it their way.” What does that even mean? It’s weird that Meta isn’t spelling any of this out.
And the promotional art for Instagram Rings is perhaps the strangest part of all, because it seems to be very inspired by The Ring for a reason that I can’t figure out except for the fact that they both involve rings. Like this banner artwork:
And this image of the judges:
And this official video about Rings:
Look, I know I might be caring about these similarities too much. But The Ring has a way of sticking with you that makes this Instagram campaign stand out for reasons that it probably shouldn’t.
Update, October 6th: After publication, Instagram spokesperson Katrina Estrella said that Instagram Rings will honor 25 winners, that Instagram hopes to do the program annually, and that the winners will have access to the features on their profiles until the next round of winners. But Estrella didn’t explain why the promotional material looks like the art for The Ring.
