Hungary Using ‘Distracted Boyfriend’ Couple to Tell Couples to Have Kids

The Hungarian government has launched a public campaign to encourage couples to have more children. What’s humorous is the choice of stock photo: whoever was responsible for the giant billboards chose the same couple that appears in the well-known “Distracted Boyfriend” photo meme.

The original “Distracted Boyfriend” photo by Antonio Guillem.

Shot by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem back in 2015, the “Distracted Boyfriend” photo went globally viral as a meme in 2017. It shows a man with his girlfriend turning around to check out another girl who’s walking by (much to the annoyance of his girlfriend).

So it’s hilarious that Hungary decided to use this same couple for its latest ad campaign that aims to increase the country’s birthrate.


The billboard went viral after a man living in the Budapest district of Zugló shot a photo of a local billboard and shared it on Facebook.

“I was driving my kids to school and my son noticed this new billboard — it’s the Hungarian government’s new ad for their pro-family benefit programs,” the man tells BuzzFeed News. “And my son immediately said, ‘this is the couple from that meme.’”

The Internet is now poking fun at the stock photo choice.


So it looks like the two models in “Distracted Boyfriend” will now make the rounds on the Internet again in yet another viral photo.

Discussion