Arby's

About

Arby's is an American fast-food sandwich restaurant chain. Online, it is well known for its social media accounts, which often demonstrate knowledge of gaming and pop culture.^[2][8] The company's slogan "We Have The Meats" has been parodied by the Twitter account under the name of "We Have The Tweets."

History

On July 23rd, 1964, Forrest and Leroy Raffel founded Arby's in Boardman, Ohio.^[1] "Big Tex" was formally going to be the name of their restaurant, but it was taken by a business in Akron. They chose the name "Arby's", based from their initials of the Raffel Brothers (R, B). At the Boardman location, they would served roast beef sandwiches, potato chips, and soft drinks. In 1965, they opened their second location in Akron, Ohio. During the 1970s, Arby's began opening new locations at a rate of 50 stores per year. As of 2017, the company has restaurants in 48 states (excluding Rhode Island and Vermont) Canada, Qatar, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.^[9]

Highlights

Jon Stewart

When he was the host of The Daily Show, mentioning Arby's was fairly common practice during his time on the series. When referring to Arby's, they were usually used as jokes for his comedic satire. These remarks started in 2013, and Arby's took this chance to get some publicity out of it. On November 2013, Arby’s sent a bunch of sandwiches to Stewart’s team, accompanied by a letter from Paul Brown, the CEO of Arby's, that contained “fun, playful language about the banter that Jon had put out there.”^[6] They also sent Stewart a tweet when he announced his departure from the show.^[10]

On August 6th, 2015, Stewart's final episode aired as an hour-long special and Arby’s wished him farewell with the video down below.

Online Presence

In 2010, Josh Martin became Arby’s social media manager.^[7] The company lacked social media engagement with their customers department, but Martin aimed to change that.

Pharrell Williams' Hat

On January 26th, 2014, the 56th Annual Grammy Awards were taking place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Out of the many celebrities that attended, Pharrell Williams came to the event with an oversized mountie hat that resembled the Arby's hat. Arby's took notice and tweeted about it (shown below).^[11]

Nihilist Arby's

This novelty Twitter account was created on January 14th, 2015, by writer Brendan Kelly. It posts pessimistic tweets focusing on the meaningless of life and inevitability of death. The main goal of this account was to give unenthusiastic recommendations for the fast food restaurant chain Arby’s.^[12]

Twitter & Facebook

Josh Martin doesn't work alone when it comes to the creative process of media posts. Roar Groupe's associate creative director Jennifer Barclay and senior account strategist Chiara Travia decide on what should be the next post on the social media accounts.^[3]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References