ABOUT

Founded in 1969, Wendy’s set out on differentiating in the fast food industry by doing things that consumers could love, and doing them the right way. Wendy’s was the newcomer fast food challenger with charm. However, 50 years later most Americans view us the same way as other traditional fast food brands. How might we make America fall in love with Wendy’s again? Well in order to get love, you must give love. There are songs and self-help books about it. We all crave appreciation and affirmation. When Americans want to show love and appreciation, we create holidays. Either traditional like Valentine’s Day, less traditional like Thank a Mail Carrier Day, or informal like a Friendaversary. Holidays are how we show we care. So creating a holiday to show America love was the perfect idea. But what if we showed our love differently by roasting America? Almost paradoxically we roast the ones we love. It’s a sign of closeness and endearment. And people love Wendy’s roasts. If Valentine’s Day is devoted to momentous displays of love and affection, then National Roast Day will be Wendy’s way of showing love and affection: by roasting anyone who asks. Global brands, regular people, bands, professional sports teams, celebrities, nobodies, celebrity nobodies (aka influencers), and even more brands all lined up to be roasted. They knowingly asked for a takedown and then shared it as a point of pride. #NationalRoastDay was so talked about it organically became a trending topic on Twitter and increased mentions of Wendy’s by 1,224%. We generated more than 30 million organic Twitter impressions and more than 130 million earned media impressions in a matter of hours. It even spread to other platforms as TikTok driving more than 10.5 million views of #NationalRoastDay.