United Airlines Attempts Free Trip Giveaway That Quickly Backfires On Twitter

United Airlines has been the subject of ongoing public scrutiny after multiple incidents between airline employees and passengers aboard its flights went viral. In what seemed an apparent ploy at generating positive buzz around its presently marred reputation, United Airlines created a viral campaign playing off an existing viral meme: the Wendy’s “nugget boy.” It didn’t go over well with social media.

Carter Wilkerson, 16, was awarded free Wendy's chicken nuggets for a year after his April 5 tweet promoting the brand was retweeted more than 3 million. Attempting to piggyback on the wave of social media attention afforded to “nugget boy” over the last week, United Airlines tweeted just days later that it would fly Wilkerson to “any @Wendys in the world in a city we serve” if he met the fast food chain’s original challenge of 18 million retweets.

The fast food chain eventually backed down from its initial challenge of 18 million and settled for a more reasonable 3.4 million retweets, which beat the world record previously held by Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfie for most retweets in Twitter’s history. Wilkerson was awarded his year of free nuggets, and Wendy’s reportedly donated $100,000 in his name to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Read: Woman Forced To Pee In Cup During United Airlines Flight, Was Humiliated By Attendant

United Airlines again pounced on the chance to build hype around its brand April 10, when it tweeted congratulations to Wilkerson for winning his free year of food. “Hey @carterjwm, congrats on your world record! It’s time to decide where in the world you’d like to visit a @Wendys!” the carrier tweeted.

Twitter users weren’t having it. Before long, people responded to United Airlines with memes about its string of recent passenger incidents, the most infamous of which was when Dr. David Dao was beaten and bloodied while being dragged off an “overbooked” United Airlines flight in April.

It was unclear as of Friday whether Wilkerson had any intention of redeeming his free flight to a destination of his choosing, though it was clear that skeptics didn’t think he should take it.

Read: United Airlines Cancels Man's Flight For Recording Confrontation With Ticket Agent

United Airlines has seen several viral videos depicting poor customer surface in recent weeks, just a few of which include flying a woman 3,000 miles in the wrong direction, forcing a woman to urinate in cups, and two separate incidents involving scorpions aboard its flights.