Quest For Free Chicken Nuggets Inspires Twitter's Most Retweeted Tweet

Enlarge this image toggle caption Wendy's Wendy's

Well, he did it — sort of.

In April, Carter Wilkerson set out on a mission to get free chicken nuggets for a year. What he may not have known was that his inquiry would become the most retweeted tweet of all time.

It was his fondness for nuggets that inspired Wilkerson to ask Wendy's how many retweets he needed to get free chicken nuggets for a year. Wendy's, playing along, set the bar high: 18 million.

Challenge accepted.

Shortly after Wendy's response, the 16-year-old from Reno, Nev., took a screenshot of the conversation and asked fellow nugget lovers to help him because, as he tweeted, "a man needs his nuggs."

On Tuesday, Wilkerson's plea for free nuggets broke the retweet record, according to Guinness World Records. His tweet was shared more than 3,470,000 times. Previously, the most shared tweet was Ellen DeGeneres' Oscars selfie, which Guinness said had 3,430,249 retweets as of Tuesday.

In light of his newfound social stardom, Wilkerson started a website, #NuggsforCarter, which sells T-shirts for all chicken nugget aficionados. According to the website, all proceeds from the merchandise sales will be donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

And even though Wilkerson didn't quite hit the 18 million mark, Wendy's decided to go ahead and give him the free nuggets for a year. Wendy's also pledged to give $100,000 to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.