The Heartwarming Chick-Fil-A Video That's Blowing Up Online
Last week, the Chick-fil-A hashtag ballooned in popularity online. The post which inspired the spike in attention was a video uploaded by Instagram account @worldstar, the profile for WorldStar Hip Hop, a website that solicits videos from fans to share with its community. In this case, the content being shared by the site was created by TikToker @jxdahparker, who had recently returned from Chick-fil-A. Under a banner reading "Good people still exist," @jxdahparker recounts how the people at Chick-fil-A asked to check their bag, which is odd as fast food employees rarely go to such inspection lengths. First the TikToker pulls out a container with a singular slice of cheese inside. The content creator drops an expletive in confusion, but states that the employee insisted they inspect the sandwich as well. Under the bacon, on the chicken patty was, in @jxdahparker words, a "cheese shaped heart."
"I'm not... crying, I'm just emotional," explained @jxdahparker, going on to say that they often leave messages such as "Have a good day" or "hope you smile today" under the "Special Instructions" segment of their order. As of writing, @worldstar's Instagram post has over 1 million views. The top comment on the video states that the extra slice of cheese was likely given as "that lil heart shaped cheese ain't enough," with the second proclaiming that "The world doesn't deserve Chick-fil-A." The majority of the comments bubbling beneath shared this sentiment of overwrought emotionality due to a sweet dairy based gesture.
The way with Chick-fil-A
Surely, one may think upon hearing this story, no fast food employee can be that nice. Apparently, however, Chick-fil-A has branded sweet natured professionalism into a corporate look. In fact, they have done this to such a degree that Buzzfeed spent the time to curate a list of 22 tweets, all gushing over how "Chick-Fil-A Workers Are Too Pure For This... World." At the beginning of the year, Business Insider reported on another viral video in which Chick-fil-A employee Jeremiah Murrill took a customer's order with a smile while working outside in the middle of winter. In case that wasn't enough, Murrill proceeded to compliment the customers, saying "Amazing timing everyone!" and offering each person in the car a fist bump.
However, as much as they may genuinely mean the niceness they exude, this kindness is part of Chick-fil-A's job requirements. Another Chick-fil-A worker — this one an ex-employee — explained to Odyssey that they were required to perform even the grossest tasks with a "genuine smile" and respond to everything with "my pleasure." Still, even after listing off multiple negatives, the worker ended with the musing that nice customers made the job worth it. So, yes, Chick-fil-A employees really are that pure.