Burger King Chicken Fries

Burger King introduced Chicken Fries in 2005 as part of a menu push aimed at an older crowd than the kids'-meal set — specifically the young-adult "super fans" the chain courted hardest. The genius was entirely in the format: breaded chicken extruded into fry shape, packed in a carton that sat in a car cup holder, its lid folding open into a little sauce tray. They arrived swaddled in one of the era's strangest ad campaigns: Coq Roq, a fictional rooster-metal band cooked up by agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, complete with masked musicians, music videos, and its own MySpace page. The masks looked familiar enough that Slipknot sued in August 2005; Burger King argued Coq Roq was a general parody of masked metal bands, both suits were eventually dropped, and the campaign ended shortly after — leaving Chicken Fries as the rare menu item with rock-litigation lore.

For seven years Chicken Fries were just quietly there — a default order for a certain kind of late-night drive-thru customer. Then in January 2012 Burger King discontinued them, swapping in ordinary chicken strips that March, and discovered what it had: the mourning organized itself into Facebook groups, Twitter campaigns, Tumblr posts, a subreddit, and a Change.org petition demanding their return.

Burger King blinked. Chicken Fries came back in August 2014 as a limited-time offer, sold out the nostalgia cycle, and in March 2015 the chain made them permanent again as part of an international menu expansion across thirty countries. It remains one of the cleanest wins on record for internet food-mourning — proof that if enough people petition for fried chicken shaped like fries, a corporation will eventually listen — and a small landmark in how brands learned to take online nostalgia seriously.