241543903, also known as "Heads in Freezers", is a numerical keyword associated with a photo meme that involves people putting their heads inside freezers and share the photos online.
It started out in April 6th, 2009, when a New York-based artist David Horvitz posted a photo of himself putting his head inside a freezer using the title "241543903" through his Flickr account SanPedroGlueSticks.
The number "241543903" came from a combination of his refrigerator's serial number, the barcodes on a bag of edamame, and a package of frozen soba noodles that Horvitz stored inside the freezer at the time.
A few days later, he posted a Tumblr post to provide the instruction about how to do it.
It didn't take long until "241543903" became a keyword that search engines sought.
With the activity became a meme and went viral, many similar photos were uploaded in such a brief moment using the cryptic number. This resulted in a high-level search engine optimization that quickly boosted the keyword.
Because of this, typing the 'magic' number "241543903" into search engines like Google will show pages after pages of posts and images of people putting their heads inside freezers.
In an interview with Urlesque, Horvitz explained that he got the idea after suggesting his friend Mylinh Nguyen who was having a headache, to stick her head in a freezer.
But he didn't realize that posting it online, quickly made it a meme.
A few weeks later on April 23rd, a single topic blog dedicated to "Heads in Freezer" was registered under the domain 241543903.com.
By January 2010, there were hundreds of Flickr photos showing people putting their heads inside the fridge, filed under the tag "241543903". The meme also spread on Facebook, Twitter and others. It has even influenced the creation of short videos on YouTube, featuring people putting their heads inside the freezers, many of which have been featured on 241543903.com.
In the interview, Horvitz shared the credit with his friend from Brazil for this meme becoming an international success.
When he returned from Brazil and back to New York, Horvitz' friend spread the words by posting the original instructions for the "241543903", and passed them to local youths on the streets through printed fliers.
The meme quickly populated Orkut, which is popular in Brazil, and eventually spread to Japan.
It was on December 2010 that the popularity of '241543903" experienced its highest peak. "241543903" is a rare case that an internet meme can spread through activities in real life.
After spreading to Japan and popularized also on Facebook in early 2010, the meme then slowly ceased its virality.
That until someone revived the meme and quickly earned over 2,000 likes and reblogs. The post even received more engagements that Horvitz's original instructions.
This again led to another boost in Google searches for the magic number.
The surge however, was far less significant.