Chicken Nuggets And The Tweet Heard 'Round The World

Carter Wilkerson finally got his nuggets.

After one of the most aggressive Twitter Inc TWTR retweet campaigns to meet Wendys Co WEN’s demand for free chicken, the Nevada teen surpassed the all-time retweet record.

His 3,443,433 fell far short of the 18 million benchmark, but the against-all-odds achievement was good enough for Wendy’s.

“You’ve more than earned our respect ... and the nuggets,” Kurt Kane, Wendy’s chief concept and marketing officer, said in a statement.

Not only did Wilkerson bag his year supply of chicken, but he also secured a $100,000 corporate donation for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a cause he promoted through his media exposure.

And on top of all that, his name is now immortalized among the Guinness World Records.

The Backstory

The 16-year-old high-school junior had long lauded the food chain’s chicken and recommended it to his early, pre-fame following. But on April 5, he took his passion to another level. Wilkerson tweeted Wendy’s a hopeful inquiry into how many retweets earned a year of free nuggets.

Wendy’s promptly replied with an ambitious, virtually unachievable goal of 18 million. For perspective, the retweet record at the time was a mere 3,430,242 — and that was for a star-studded Oscar photo by the widely popular Ellen Degeneres.

But Wilkerson had a mission, and he wouldn’t surrender easily. He launched a #NuggsForCarter campaign that, throughout the next month, garnered great publicity.

Wilkerson didn’t let his overnight fame go to waste. Through a campaign website and #NuggsForCarter T-shirt sales, he bolstered the Dave Thomas Foundation and Pinocchio’s Moms on the Run, a breast cancer support organization, with awareness and donations.

Since news broke of his retweet record Tuesday morning, Wendy’s shares popped to trade up 1.9 percent on the day.

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