Red Lobster’s sales and Internet presence skyrocketed last weekend thanks to an endorsement from the queen herself, Beyoncé.
The singer dropped a new song, “Formation,” last week, and while it’s great for a number of reasons, the lyric “When he f**k me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster” really stood out.
As soon as the Internet realized that Beyoncé was name-checking the seafood chain, it did what it does best—make jokes.
Everybody pullin up to Red Lobster parking lot tonight like: pic.twitter.com/CxWAbZ0zH0
— Mrs B (@CuteButNotFunny) February 6, 2016
“She came up in here with Jay one day and I hopped my ass out that tank & dove into the pot so fast. It was crazy!” pic.twitter.com/OaxGRzYP3x
— Dejon. (@DejonNoMustard) February 6, 2016
People soon began to wonder whether and how Red Lobster would respond to Queen B’s endorsement.
red lobster social media team deciding on the next tweet. pic.twitter.com/dy2l9mu1Qv
— sean. (@Seantaneous) February 6, 2016
.@redlobster, wake up. you are missing your moment.
— deray (@deray) February 7, 2016
Unfortunately, Red Lobster did respond—but it did so poorly.
“Cheddar Bey Biscuits” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? #Formation @Beyonce pic.twitter.com/QzgVtYAKNo
— Red Lobster (@redlobster) February 7, 2016
This was Red Lobster’s moment: an opportunity to rise to the occasion and leap ahead of every other brand out there. That’s why the Internet was so disappointed that the brand had failed so miserably.
@redlobster yall had hours and this is what yall come up with? pic.twitter.com/DY2jO6y9Ti
— E. (@ErykahTbh) February 7, 2016
Of course, Red Lobster tried to make for its mistake with followup tweets, but the damage was already done.
You try to bake Cheddar Bay Biscuits and tweet at the same time! #harderthanitlooks #Formation
— Red Lobster (@redlobster) February 7, 2016
Our bad. We’re really busy for some reason. #ThanksB #👑🐝
— Red Lobster (@redlobster) February 7, 2016
You definitely slay, @Beyonce. Thanks for one heck of a weekend. https://t.co/7IJfyl76k5
— Red Lobster (@redlobster) February 9, 2016
Despite—or perhaps because of—this Internet notoriety, the chain still did remarkably well over the weekend. Sales on Sunday jumped 33 percent over figures for the same time last year, the company revealed.
“We are absolutely delighted with what we saw over the weekend, particularly the consumer sentiment that we saw expressed,” Red Lobster CEO Kim Lopdrup told CNBC. “It’s clear that Beyonce has helped create some Red Lobster fans, and we are very grateful to her for that.”
Red Lobster trended on Twitter for the first time, with its first response to “Formation” receiving more than 14,000 likes and retweets each. There was also a spike in Google searches for “red lobster” on Saturday.
Photo via Mike Mozart/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
