The Fast Food Feud That No One Is Talking About

In the PR world, we often lean on social media holidays as a way to help our clients become part of online conversations that are relevant to their specific brand and messaging strategies.

And as we were planning our own Trestle Collective social media content for July, it made sense to celebrate National French Fry Day, which has historically fallen on July 13. The team and I  filmed a blind french fry taste test as part of my Kudos Tastes series in observance of the occasion.

Then, a quick Google search told us that some brands had chosen to observe the holiday on July 14 instead of July 13 because they wanted Fry Day to fall on a Friday. We learned that in 2022, Checker’s and Rally’s petitioned National Day Calendar founder Marlo Anderson to change the date of the holiday to the second Friday in July for the sake of a good pun. He obliged and announced the change on his YouTube channel.

However, fast food giants including McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A were not on board with this change. Both chains offered their customers free fries with purchase on July 13, in keeping with tradition.

The question that arises from this debacle is a simple one – when it comes to made-up social media holidays, who gets to decide on the date?

And how do we, as communications professionals, know that we’re observing these events on the correct days?

One might suggest that Marlo Anderson is not the most authoritative source on the matter, given his only qualification is the fact that he woke up on National Popcorn Day in 2013 and thought more people should be observing it. Sure, he started the National Day Calendar, but anyone with rudimentary web design skills and enough time could have done that.

Frankly, it also seems like this is too much power for one man, sitting on his throne of holidays and changing them on a whim. So if we take Anderson out of the mix, the top contenders for a French Fry Day tribunal would arguably be the businesses who cook and sell the most fries. 

If you ask me, Checker’s and Rally’s don’t have the clout to be invited to this party. For starters, they can’t even decide on one name for their own restaurants. What qualifies them to set the schedule for a sacred fast food holiday? Also, their fries are average at best. I tasted them for the first time as part of my National French Fry Day Challenge, and they were far from my favorite.

I tend to align with McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A in the National French Fry Day debate - first, because both companies make great french fries, and second, because it’s easier from a planning perspective to celebrate a holiday on the same day each year, rather than relegating it to a certain day of the week.

At the end of the day, this debate is mostly inconsequential. Some restaurants will run their promotions on July 13, and others will run them on the second Friday in July. But it would make my job a little easier if they came to an agreement.