The chief executive of T-Mobile US has offered a random teen on the internet a year’s supply of chicken nuggets if he switches from AT&T.

Carter Wilkerson, 16, of Reno, Nevada, had previously asked American burger joint Wendy's how many retweets he would need for a year's supply of chicken nuggets.

"18 million," replied Wendy's Twitter account. For perspective, the most retweeted tweet of all time was a product placement shot for the Samsung Galaxy, posted on the microblogging website by talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres. It had gathered 3.2 million retweets by the time of writing.

HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3 — Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017

Bored social media brand consultants started weighing in, with Wilkerson receiving endorsements from, among others: the state governor of Nevada; Microsoft; Google (not to be outdone by Microsoft); and, tragically, LinkedIn.

United Airlines also offered him "a free flight to take you to any Wendy's in the world in a city we serve".

Meanwhile, John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile US, chimed in:

Hey @carterjwm, sorry you have @ATT. Switch to @TMobile & I'll give you a year of free @Wendys chicken nuggets myself + more! Seriously. https://t.co/RmVygHPPob — John Legere (@JohnLegere) April 8, 2017

Although it's all a light-hearted teenage prank that's caught on and given the lad his 15 minutes of fame, it's difficult not to see Wilkerson's chicken nugget crusade as an opportunity for every profit-making corporation on the far side of the Pond to weigh in and make themselves look good. Click on Legere's tweet above and view the replies to it for a flavour of what that means.

Wilkerson has a website that briefly explains how it all started and a bit about his family to boot. The web address was registered by what appears to be an Australian private citizen – and there's nothing wrong with that. ®