The World Record For The Most RTed Tweet Of All Time Was Broken Over Free Chicken Nuggets
Who would've thunk?
By Sadho Ram — 10 May 2017, 03:16 PM
A month after asking Wendy's — how many retweets to get a year's supply of free chicken nuggets — a teenager from Nevada, United States, has displaced Ellen Degeneres as the throne-holder of the most-retweeted tweet of all time
So what happened?
On 5 April, 16-year-old Carter Wilkerson, from Reno, Nevada, jokingly asked Wendy's as to how many retweets it would take to get free nuggets for a year.
Wendy’s, which has a long history of leveraging Twitter to communicate with people, responded. The fast-food chain gave Carter an impossible task.
@carterjwm 18 Million
— Wendy's (@Wendys) April 6, 2017
At that time, Carter, with 138 followers, was a nobody
And Wendy's admittedly thought that Carter wouldn't be able to do it.
After all, in the history of Twitter, at that point of time, Ellen's Oscar selfie held the world record for the most retweeted tweet of all time, at 3.3 million retweets. And that was achieved due to the star power Ellen and others wielded.
But then Carter tweeted the following:
HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3
— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017
And then the impossible happenend
Carter's followers count grew from 138 and he now has over 110,000 followers.
Twitter granted him with a verified badge and made a custom hashtag with emoji for the hashtag #NuggsForCarter, featuring a box of Wendy's nuggets.
His tweet went viral instantly, reaching more than a million retweets in just two days. His tweet also gained fame as Carter was mentioned in tweets by celebrities, politicians, other brands and strangers, all pitching it to get him his free nuggets.
T-Mobile's CEO John Legere even offered Carter more than just Wendy's nuggets.
Hey @carterjwm, sorry you have @ATT. Switch to @TMobile & I'll give you a year of free @Wendys chicken nuggets myself + more! Seriously. https://t.co/RmVygHPPob
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) April 8, 2017
While Carter was far away from the 18 million count, his tweet was rapidly getting closer to beating Ellen's epic selfie tweet. In the process, Twitter even kept count:
Get the sauces ready, #NuggsForCarter has 3 million+ Retweets. pic.twitter.com/ydLBtfK3Z3
— Twitter (@Twitter) April 18, 2017
Soon it was over
.@carterjwm is now the most retweeted tweet of all-time. That’s good for the nuggets, and $100k to @DTFA. Consider it done. #nuggsforcarter pic.twitter.com/k6uhsJiP4E
— Wendy's (@Wendys) May 9, 2017
While Carter didn't reach 18 million, breaking the record for the most retweeted tweet was enough for Wendy's
The fast-food chain has announced that it will give Carter his free nuggets and will also donate USD100,000 to The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
On his part, Carter is raising additional money for the cause on his website.
While Carter got his nuggs, he still wants 18 million RTs
We did it guys! Thanks to you're help and support we were able to raise $100k for @DTFA and beat @TheEllenShow record! Now let's get 18mil!
— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) May 9, 2017