The Most Cringe-Worthy Tweets In Fast Food History

Fast food chains have created massive social followings on Twitter. Many are hilarious marketing platforms designed to engage with users and create a voice for faceless global brands. The same fast food brands have received plenty of attention in recent years, due to the popularity of their often less-than-subtle Twitter feuds, attacks on users, and complete takedowns of celebrities and competitors alike. In the pursuit of a coveted viral tweet, however, more than a few missteps have thrust the eateries into the public eye for the wrong reasons. 

Not everyone in the food industry has admired the sometimes brutal responses from the supposedly family-friendly chains. Respected food media outlets, including the less-than-amused Eater, have lamented the corporate attempts at relevance. Let's not forget that these accounts are just another effort to get you to buy a burger or chicken sandwich. Evoking a bit of schadenfreude, Wendy's has famously taken on random users and celebrities alike but failed to boost sales in restaurants. Despite some aggressive and nihilistic tweets, most simply lean toward humor to entertain fast food Twitter devotees. Granted, not all of the tweets land as intended. 

The "never frozen" burger chain is notorious for its cheeky jabs at fellow fast food competitors, and a Twitter feud in 2017 showcased the creativity of both Wingstop and Wendy's. Twitter user @LeftAtLondon started the viral thread by posting an image of a Wingstop next to a Gamestop. They compared the neighboring stores to the lyrics of a Migos song that go, "Raindrop, drop top." The funny coincidence fell into the hands of social media managers who apparently had some time on their hands.

Thrillist followed the feud where Wingstop responded with its own rhyme, which gained over 134,000 likes. A Wendy's loyalist called on the burger brand to throw in its own humor. Within three hours, Wendy's responded to Wingstop with a Kendrick Lamar lyric, "Sit down, be humble." The marketing stunt then went overboard. Wingstop quoted Wendy's response with a slight jab at its "not frozen" motto. An impressive back-and-forth rhyme battle continued, with each brand responding with multiple stanzas in minutes. Wendy's did quit first, thanking Wingstop for what is probably the only rap battle between two food brands. Both of the eateries proved to be formidable, even if it left the rest of us wondering where our afternoon went.

Chrissy Teigen is known for being at the helm of a growing cookbook empire. She's also gained a reputation for roasting unwitting users on Twitter, so it's not surprising why fast food brands might fight for her attention. Us reported that White Castle and Taco Bell each made a pass at the celebrity on the social platform in February 2014. First, Teigen tweeted that her users were telling her about the release of Taco Bell's new breakfast menu. White Castle reached out to Teigen for failing to shout out the burger chain's "delicious sliders." The cookbook author replied, "Well well well it's a good ol fashioned showdown."

White Castle then tweeted, "All we have to say is, your an original cover model. We're an original slider. It's a match made in heaven." While the fast food chain might be original, the social team didn't notice their less-than-original grammar mistake. Taco Bell, on the other hand, didn't sleep through English class. The drive-thru giant replied with a simple and deadpan, "You're*."

A few months later, Teigen was quoted in Bon Appetit talking about her love of Taco Bell and indulgence in guilty pleasures like White Castle while imbibing. Tiegen went even further to mention her love of the store-bought White Castle sliders "in the poisonous plastic wrapping." Grammar mistakes or not, turns out you might win over a celebrity with the right late-night snack.

At the start of 2017, Wendy's caused a stir when it decided they weren't taking any prisoners. Thrillist followed Wendy's social media evolution when the team who ran Wendy's Twitter feed gained notoriety in January for dragging a vocal troll. The user attacked the brand's "never frozen beef" slogan and waxed poetic about McDonald's burgers reigning supreme. Following the exchange, the user made their account private before deleting the account entirely. However, the exchange itself took a strange turn when someone from the Wendy's team posted a Pepe the Frog meme made to look like the brand's mascot. The meme was promptly taken down, as the frog had been co-opted by racist groups on the internet.

Despite that unexpected lapse in judgment, the savvy brand team continued the clapbacks. Thrillist found that the snarky burger company couldn't resist the hundreds of Twitter users willing to mention the company. Wendy's roasted McDonald's by comparing it to a trash can. The brand responded to someone with "delete your account." When asked the cost of a Big Mac, Wendy's said buying the famous burger would cost "Your dignity." 

The Takeout argued that while humor can win the internet, Wendy's had turned into little more than a troll itself. Reuters reported that McDonald's might get the last laugh after all — at least in restaurant sales.

Double entendres in a blatantly suggestive tweet don't mix well with family-friendly food chains. Who'd have thought? HuffPost followed the KFC controversy in Australia in 2016 when the brand decided to get saucy in a tweet deemed not suitable for work. The marketing ploy relied on a photo of a man and woman sitting on a couch. A blurred area around the man's groin is where the image only starts to get suggestive. The guy looks suggestively at his lap while the woman reaches over. The caption reads: "Something hot and spicy is coming soon." It didn't take long for Twitter users to poke fun at the racy tweet. One read, "Wait, is KFC introducing jerk chicken? Was that the joke?" What started in jest quickly turned into a social media nightmare.

KFC Australia took the tweet down an hour after first posting it. The brand also apologized for its lapse in good taste — something most people want at the very least from a food brand. The brand tweeted, "We are very sorry for our earlier tweet on H&S – we didn't mean to offend and removed it when we realised we'd made an error in judgment." In this case, it's best to leave anything hot and spicy on the menu.

Attempting to drag rivals on Twitter is a losing game if you don't have the following to back it up. Carl's Jr. learned this the hard way. It's long been known that rival Wendy's is not one to go against on social media. The Daily Mail reported in 2017 that the competitive burger brand wasn't one to take an online jab without a clapback when a user named Andrew Morgan started the commentary when they asked Wendy's how Carl's Jr. compared. Carl's Jr. replied a few hours later, "LOL they don't."  

Wendy's, known for its brutal takedowns replied, "Yeah, for one, if we were going to diss another restaurant we'd have more than zero likes and RTs after 13 hours." Harsh, but excellent point. The clapback resulted in almost 60,000 likes. Looks like Carl's Jr. might want to think twice before picking another fight it can't win.

We realize Steak-umm isn't a traditional fast food chain. The brand has become legendary, however, for its Twitter rants. Instead of being hostile to Twitter users like certain testy food brands, Steak-umm brought some realness with an unexpected Twitter rant aimed at our collective existential dread. And this was in 2018, well before the year best described as a dumpster fire. The six-tweet thread maxed out the character limit with some dark and disturbingly insightful pondering on the lack of solutions in a world of uncertainty. 

Eater mentioned that despite the misery campaign, the brand did receive a boost in traffic. The American food brand for "thin-sliced frozen steaks" questioned the purpose of social media as disenfranchised youth struggled with debt, mental health problems, and uncertainty. The sad social media manager explained that young people on Twitter didn't always have parents to turn to, so "they go to obscure or absurdist humor. They go to frozen meat companies on Twitter." We're not crying, you're crying.