Franchise Times: Shuckin' Shack Oyster Bar CEO Jonathan Weathington Takes Advantage of A Social Media Moment by Adding Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp to the Menu

Shuckin’ Shack CEO Jonathan Weathington told Franchise Times that he first saw the story on a Reddit thread, and ignored it until a friend let him know it had hit the network “news of the weird.”

According to Weathington, Shuckin’ Shack’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp was not intended to drive sales, but rather to put the brand into the social media conversation. The response from the public as well as the media has been overwhelmingly positive. Local radio stations, food media, and the regional paper all picked up the story, and it was a hit on social media platforms.

“I think playing along with it [the social response] is a good rule of thumb. We try to participate in those [social trends] because it's fun — that’s really us as a brand, that’s our brand DNA. None of us take ourselves too seriously — we're consistently sharing meme ideas here and there,” Weathington told Franchise Times.

As for the next viral menu item? Weathington noted the team is pondering creating a menu item out of the latest aquatic meme: the Suez Canal ship.