This project sought to examine the ways in which the pandemic was represented on Instagram. Positioning Instagram as both a public archive and an important site of cultural memory, I argue that these small, square-formatted snapshots act as portals into 2020, giving us a glimpse—albeit a highly curated one—into the junctures of mundanity and glamour, collective trauma and commercialism. Through a particular focus on promotional culture, this paper considers the ways in which our collective memory of the COVID-19 crisis has been mediated and informed by both commercialism and consumption, asking how these representations will impact understandings of the pandemic in years to come. Image credit: Sara Shakeel