'Plant 1 tree for every pet picture' trend on Instagram, explained

This screengrab shows a post from the Instagram account Plant A Tree Co. claiming responsibility for starting the popular campaign. (Plant A Tree Co. / Instagram)

TORONTO -

The company behind an Instagram campaign that promises to plant a tree every time someone shares a photo of their pet says the trend has gotten out of control and it won't be able to plant the millions of trees pledged without help.

Plant A Tree Co claimed responsibility Monday for starting the campaign, which presents itself as an "Add Yours" sticker that reads, "We'll plant 1 tree for every pet picture" and features an emoji of a dog.  

Plant A Tree Co is a Florida-based company that sells necklaces, ranging from zero to US$30, and says the funds go towards planting trees. The company says on its website that it has planted more than 6,500 trees out of its one million goal, but it does not specify where or when these trees were planted, or by whom.

The e-commerce site also does not include information about the company's vision or staff, which has prompted some to allege that the company may not be legitimate.

In a series of slides posted to their Instagram account, Plant A Tree Co explained that it started the initiative as a "fun tree planting campaign where we can show off our awesome pets."

However, the company says the campaign quickly took off.

"We immediately realized the post would grow too big and that we didn’t have the resources to plant that many trees, so we deleted it 10 minutes later. Even though we deleted it, the stories continued to spread out of our control," Plant A Tree Co wrote on Instagram on Monday.

As of Tuesday morning, there had been more than 4.2 million pet photos shared on Instagram using the sticker.

Plant A Tree Co said deleting the sticker on Instagram only removed the company's name from it, and did not remove the sticker from the social media platform entirely, adding to confusion about who had started the trend and who would be planting these trees.

Plant A Tree Co said in the post that the removal of the credit and not the sticker itself "seems like an Instagram bug." The company encouraged users to report its post to the social media giant for a fix.

The "Add Yours" sticker was added as an Instagram Story function on Nov. 1. The feature allows users to choose a theme, and then invite others to participate in the story by adding their own photos that match the theme.

In a statement to CTVNews.ca, Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, said the "Add Yours" stickers show the original author when a user taps on them, except in certain cases where the author chooses to remove their handle as the designated author, if they delete the original post, or if their account is private.

The company said it is "working on making these cases clearer for the community."

"The 'plant 1 tree for every pet picture' Add Yours thread was disabled to limit misunderstanding around who authored the original post. We're working on ways to make authorship clearer and minimize confusion moving forward," a spokesperson for Meta said in an email.

Plant A Tree Co said it is now aiming to fundraise over US$1.3 million that will "directly go" towards the non-profit organization Trees for the Future to help with their tree planting effort after admitting the number is beyond the company's capacity. However, the company noted in an Instagram post that it is not affiliated with Trees for the Future and the fundraiser is not available in all countries.

Many users in the comments of Plant A Tree Co's post also called on Instagram to help plant some of the trees, given the vast amount of engagement the sticker generated.

In its statement to CTVNews.ca, Meta said it did not have comment on whether Instagram would aid in the fundraising or tree planting effort.

Plant A Tree Co has allegedly started similar social media campaigns in the past for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd, and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service amid the Australian bushfires, but the company has not said whether funds were donated to these causes.