How a Student's Twitter Bet With Wendy's Crushed the All-time Retweet Record

When you break records, you make noise. And Wendy’s #NuggsForCarter conversation created more than noise beyond the Twittersphere — the world got into formation, from fans and brands to presidents and celebrities, so a young man named Carter could get his free chicken nuggets. With more than 1 billion earned media impressions to date, and no paid support, this social moment earned coverage from international and national top-tiered media, and the movement was supported for weeks.

@carterjwm tweeted Wendy’s and asked how many retweets it would take to get him free chicken nuggets for a year. Wendy’s responded “18 Million.” Celebrities and brands championed Carter’s “cause,” getting it mainstream media attention. Carter’s tweet about Wendy’s chicken nuggets earned 3.4 million+ retweets — the most-retweeted tweet ever. Twitter verified Carter’s account and created a custom emoji triggered by the #NuggsForCarter hashtag, used 151,000+ times. @Wendys earned 212,000 new Twitter followers and saw 20.1 million visits to its Twitter profile.