The Virality of Popeyes’ New Chicken Sandwich in the Chicken Sandwich War of 2019

On August 12th of 2019, the popular fast food chain, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen announced the release of their new chicken sandwich on Twitter (@PopeyesChicken, 2019). Frequent customers of Popeyes took well to the sandwich but it wasn’t until a week later that the social media team at Popeyes sent another tweet that shocked the fast food world and skyrocketed the sales of the new sandwich. In response to a tweet from main competitor Chick-fil-A, Popeyes started a Twitter-based chicken war to determine who had created the best chicken sandwich. They initially seemed to win the first battle, since they ran out of the chicken sandwich within three weeks of its release. However, they were facing a new challenge: what should they do next as they plan the re-launch of their chicken sandwich?