This isn't organic viral. It was re-posted by Buzzfeed, which has an army of "affiliates" promoting it on social media.
I've been watching their growth on Twitter, watching the people who push them. It's an interesting study in how a controlled media organization can masquerade as being organic and cool, and how the journalistic types who promote it can blend in without arousing suspicion.
The BBC report sums it up well
Quote:
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So is this a story of social media empowering the individual, giving ordinary people access to a global audience? Not quite. Really, it was old-fashioned media competition that drove the viral trend. The dramatic spike in conversation only took place in the wake of the Buzzfeed article. Its popularity on that site prompted a string of copycat articles on the news sites belonging to more established, as media outlets bid to exploit the huge spike in web traffic. The dress is a classical optical illusion, and that's why people love it. But it was big brand publishers getting in on the act and writing about it - kind of like the blog post that you've just read - that made it go viral.
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BBC News - Why everyone is asking: What colour is this dress?'