I thought this was a funny social media case because it
started out as a kid who just wanted free chicken nuggets, and Ellen turned it
into a competition. I thought it was interesting how in the video clip on
youtube, Ellen calls her Oscar’s selfie “A cultural phenomenon”. I remember
when Ellen took the selfie and how much I saw it on different platforms of
social media. I remember there being a lot of different memes about it, and in
a way I guess it was a cultural phenomenon.
I do think that Ellen’s
picture was retweeted so many times because of her popularity and fan base,
along with the popularity and fan base of everyone else in the photo. It is
easier to get millions of retweets when you have millions of fans. Whereas
Carter, this kid who did this probably just as a joke in the beginning, was not
a celebrity and did not have nearly as many followers. I think to ‘go viral’ is
to have something interesting that spreads extremely quickly.
I think that Ellen might have put herself in a position to
lose the title of the most retweeted tweet by bringing Carter onto her show. He
was steadily gaining popularity and by having him on her talk show it
introduced him to all of her fans. Even though she warned that anyone
retweeting his chicken nuggets tweet would also need to retweet her photo, it
might have been playing to an audience that had already retweeted her photo.
They now had someone new to follow and retweet.
Carter has passed Ellen and holds the record of the most
retweeted tweet. Although I doubt it, it makes me wonder if Ellen will stay true
to her word and take back all the gifts she gave him like she said she would if
he passed her.
While Carter did not get the 18 million tweets he would need
for the free chicken nuggets, he was still granted them. What I found the most
interesting about this case was that Carter used this platform that he now has
to do good with it. What started out as just wanting chicken nuggets has given him
a strong voice to use to help other people.
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