Courtesy of the Ellen Show

Alex from Target getting interviewed by Ellen Degeneres

Over the last week boy named Alex has been appearing all over social media. The picture shows a cute guy named Alex working at Target. There are currently over 300,000 photos of him when using #AlexfromTarget on Instagram. The picture is of an attractive unsuspecting boy named Alex Christopher Labouef who apparently works at a Target in Texas.

There are theories that Labouef picture was a publicity stunt caused from a viral marketing company called “Breakr.” Labouef denied all claims, explaining that he didn’t even know that the company existed.

Fake or not, this has started a trend of taking pictures of attractive workers, due to the popularity of Labouef. The group of people who obsess over these regular workers have started to call themselves “The Customers.”

This is such a huge invasion of privacy, Labouef is a minor and had not given consent to have his picture taken. He was just trying to do his job, and his whole face was plastered everywhere on social media websites like Twitter. At first it sounds like a dream – he got an interview with Ellen and he went from a bag boy to being a heartthrob for thousands of teen girls. It sounds like a pretty good deal, but it cost him his privacy.

Since his internet fame people have been sending death threats to his girlfriend, “I will find you, and I will kill you,” said one Twitter user. People also have allegedly found his number and posted it all over Instagram. It’s as if as soon as you get a couple hundred thousands Twitter followers, you forfeit all rights to having a normal life.

It’s great that thousands of people can band together to get an image out, but maybe just maybe we should respect a teen boy’s privacy.