DUBLIN, OH — A Ghost Pepper Frosty announced at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday as a clearly labeled April Fools’ joke has, as of 2 p.m. Eastern, outsold the actual chocolate Frosty at a ratio of four to one, forcing Wendy’s to hold an emergency call in which executives asked a marketing intern to please slow down whatever she did.
The prank tweet, which included a mocked-up image of a red-tinted Frosty with the caption “April Fools! (unless???)”, was intended to trend for six hours and then be quietly deleted. Instead, 340,000 customers walked into stores demanding one, and a manager in Toledo began charging $7 for a regular Frosty with a single drop of Cholula stirred in.
“We ran the numbers three times because I thought the spreadsheet was broken,” said Priya Adalja, a senior category lead at Wendy’s who was on PTO in Sedona and had to respond to Slack from a hot-air balloon. “The prank product outperformed our actual Q2 launch. The Q2 launch was a spicy chicken sandwich. We spent nine months on it. It exists.”
By 11 a.m., the ripple had spread. Chipotle, sensing weakness, announced a fake “Carne Asada Latte” and had to walk it back within forty minutes after a Denver location reported eleven pre-orders from a man in a Subaru who “seemed serious.” Popeyes deleted its April Fools’ post entirely after learning three franchisees had already begun sourcing the ingredients.
“This is the third year in a row that our joke product has outperformed our real product,” said a Taco Bell brand strategist who asked to be identified only as “someone who has stopped trying.” “Last year it was Nacho Fries dusted with edible glitter. We got a cease-and-desist from the FDA and a marriage proposal from a woman in Reno. We shipped it in August.”
Consumer sentiment appeared to confirm the collapse of the prank-versus-product distinction entirely. “I don’t care if it’s a joke, I want the red one,” said Marcus Hensley, 34, waiting in a drive-thru in Grand Rapids behind seventeen other cars all ordering the same nonexistent item. Asked whether he understood April Fools’ Day, Hensley said he did, and that this was in fact why he was there.
Wendy’s confirmed late Wednesday afternoon that the Ghost Pepper Frosty will enter permanent rotation beginning May 6, joining a growing list of items — including Arby’s “Meat Mountain,” IHOP’s brief pivot to IHOb, and a 2023 Sonic slushie flavored like ranch — that began as bits and ended as line items on a P&L.
The company declined to comment on rumors that next year’s April Fools’ prank has already been greenlit as a product, and will be announced as a joke solely for regulatory reasons.