It’s the fast food rumour that just won’t go away.
For months Red Rooster has been dogged by wild “conspiracy” claims on TikTok that its restaurants are often empty and not as busy as its rivals, so are therefore a “cover-up” for something.
Now Red Rooster has had the last laugh, posting a series of hilarious TikTok videos roasting itself and the theories.
The first video, which is aptly dedicated to “all the non-believers out there”, provides “proof” the store has customers.
In the clip, apparent fans of the chain are asked to give their opinion on RedRooster’s chicken to those who “avoid” the chain “thinking that it still sucks”.
The video got more than 400,000 viewers who praised the brand’s brilliant response to the silly conspiracy theories.
However some failed to spot the humour, dragging Red Rooster for using “paid actors” to crow about its roasted chook.
So, how did we get here?
‘YOU NEVER SEE ANYONE EATING THERE’
The “rumours” about a Red Rooster conspiracy have been bubbling away on Aussie TikTok for some time.
The videos are half joking, half serious and it’s essentially our homegrown version of QAnon – Americans have #pizzagate, while we have #chickengate.
“When was the last time you ate at Red Rooster? You’ve never eaten at Red Rooster,” @dakniii asked back in March this year.
“You never see anyone eating there … honestly every Red Rooster you drive past, they don’t have customers. How are they making money?” another TikTok user @charbel96 asked.
But they really kicked off in April when TikTok comedian @alright.hey posted a video responding to a question about places that “are a cover-up for something”.
“The most obvious one – Red Rooster,” he said. “The car park is always empty, there’s no-one in the store, there’s no-one in drive-through.”
As a result, many speculated why the restaurants were never busy — causing the video to capture the attention of Red Rooster execs who invited the comedian into the its headquarters and to suss out what it is like “working” at one of its restaurants.
It spawned a series of clips from the comedian that “investigated” the chain, prompting fans
to defend their beloved Red Rooster.
Some even tried to explain why the restaurants never looked busy.
“Previous Red Rooster employee here! We made most of our sales at 4pm for the oldies and soccer mum dinner rush. I’m talking PACKED!” one person wrote.
“Uh but Red Rooster is great? It’s hella popular where I am,” another commented.
RED ROOSTER RESPONDS TO THE ‘HATERS’
Now Red Rooster has decided to respond to the conspiracy theories first hand with two videos making fun of the claims in a tongue-in-cheek bid to prove “Red Rooster has actual customers”.
Red Rooster’s director of marketing Ashley Hughes told news.com.au that the company decided to get in on the joke as they know “Aussies love a good urban myth or conspiracy theory”.
“There has been one circulating for some time that Red Rooster is a money-laundering business,” he said.
“As a good Aussie down-to-earth brand it’s not above us to have a laugh at ourselves and we think it’s quite funny actually – we feel confident enough to join the conversation and play to it, having some fun with everyone and the theory along the way.”
Mr Hughes said it was “hilarious” to see how far the “conspiracy theory” had gone with its latest video being viewed over 1.5 million times in the last five days.
“Like any urban myth we can’t really pinpoint the origins, but we love how prolific and popular this has become – especially on TikTok – and what we love even more is the fact that people are talking about us and our brand,” he said.
“So many creators have used these claims in their TikToks … which is hilarious because we actually serve tens of millions of customers every year and are a network of over 360 restaurants that employs nearly 9000 crew.
“We don’t mind though: Everyone’s welcome at Reds. Even the ‘haters’.”
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Mr Hughes said the brand was also “loving the opportunity to make others rethink their perceptions and bias of Red Rooster”.
It has since seen the brand’s TikTok following jump massively, thanks in part to Red Rooster fan Seva Mozhaev, who went viral for his unique method of eating chicken wings and later partnered with the brand.
“In just under a month, Reds’ TikTok has gone from practically zero to over two million views and we have accumulated over 24,000 followers,” Mr Hughes said.
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