Brands attempting to cash in on a cultural moment like the GameStop stock saga is inevitable, but I’m not sure Popeyes really knew what they were getting into with this one.
On Monday, the fast food chain Popeyes announced it’d be running a promotion for “Free Tendies for All” in response to the ongoing story of Reddit day traders pumping stocks like GameStop, AMC, Blackberry, and Nokia that hedge fund traders bet against. This coordinated move brought in huge profits for some who put their money in at the right time and cost some hedge funds billions.
“Starting today for a limited time only, Popeyes will offer FREE 3pc chicken tenders, with a $5 min. purchase, to all through the Popeyes app or online by turning the stock listing for all of the affected stocks, such as $GME, $AMC, $BB, and $NOK into promo codes to redeem the offer,” Popeyes wrote in a press release.
So why the hell is Popeyes getting involved?
OK, so the main forum responsible for the stock upheaval is Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets. Along with stock talk, the subreddit is filled with memes, shitposting, and tons of inside jokes, one of which involves chicken tenders or, as they are widely referred to on the site, tendies.
“Tendies is the word retail traders on websites like Reddit use to describe money or financial gain – and in our world it’s also short for chicken tenders,” Popeyes wrote.
This is true. When you win on a Wall Street bet, those financial gains are often referred to “tendies” and sometimes you’ll see photos on the site where people celebrate a win with a dinner of tendies and hunny mussy (honey mustard).
But missing from all of this is the origin and joke behind the tendies meme, which has been around for a few years and appears to have originated on 4chan before moving over to Reddit, according to KnowYourMeme.
In the simplest of terms, 20-something neckbeards living in their mom’s basement are fed fried chicken tenders (tendies) in exchange for behaving well (good boy points). Early iterations of the meme also featured Pepe the Frog, a meme which has since been co-opted by a number of controversial groups and has been designated as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.
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“Specifically playing on the idea that neckbeards are maladjusted ‘man-children’, and chicken nuggets/tenders are considered ‘kids’ food’. Popularized by 4chan greentext stories about basement dwelling neckbeards in their mid-twenties who can exchange ‘good boy points’ with their mother in exchange for ‘tendies,'” as one Redditor explained years ago in a thread explaining the meme to a confused poster.
Sure, the meme can be a self-deprecating gag about how people who spend all day on the internet still live with their parents, but it also very quickly gets fatphobic, homophobic, racist, and sexist. This is all well-documented on the r/tendies subreddit, where the meme is celebrated with a real love for chicken tenders, mixed with roleplaying, memes, shitposting, stories, and a bit of a crossover of r/WallStreetBets.
But when Reddit took on hedge funds last week and struck terror into the finance world, tendies was even further cemented as a symbol for the everyday person in internet culture. A deep-fried trash frozen food with racist and sexist roots representing the financial gains of the masses trying to take down a corrupt system. What’s more American than that?
“Tendies aren’t for the elite few,” Popeyes ad states. “They’re for everyone.”
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So where do things go from here? Who the hell knows, but a huge brand just said #Tendies4Yall and I’m not sure we can ever go back.
Tendies are here to stay.