About

Denny's is an American casual breakfast chain restaurant. It is known for food like its Grand Slam meal, as well as for being open for 24 hours and not closing on holidays. Online, it is well known for its social media accounts, which often demonstrate literacy with memes and use them to advertise the chain.

History

Denny's was founded in 1953 as "Danny's Donuts" by Harold Butler and Richard Jezak in Lakewood California.^[1] After 3 years, it was renamed Danny's Coffee Shops and changed to 24-hour service. In 1959, it rebranded as "Denny's Coffee Shops" to avoid confusion with Los Angeles chain Coffee Dan's. By 1981, the company had restaurants in all 50 states.

Notable Developments

In the early 1990s, Denny's was involved in several discrimination lawsuits filed by black customers who were denied service, forced to wait longer, or forced to pay extra money. In 1994, Denny's settled a class action lawsuit for $54.4 million. After the settlement, Denny's instituted a racial sensitivity program for all employees.

Social Media Presence

Online, Denny's is notable for being one of the most meme-literate brands, regularly using social media platforms to advertise with popular memes. In 2011, it was voted the most engaged restaurant on Facebook.^[2]

Tumblr

Denny's began drawing significant attention when it hired 23-year old Amber Gordon, to oversee all their social media accounts. As the chain's Facebook and YouTube channels were already established, Gordon focused on expanding Denny's presence on Tumblr, launching an official account on April 9th, 2013.^[3] By July, it had already earned enough media attention that The Daily Dot^[2] covered the success of the Tumblr. The account has been praised for the way it advertises by engaging in meme culture without sounding out-of-touch, as is often the case when brands attempt to market to youths. Jokes from the Tumblr have been compiled in Cheezburger,^[4] Pleated-jeans,^[5] and Dorkly.^[6]

Twitter

The meme-literate style of posting has also come to define Denny's Twitter^[7] account, as the brand regularly shitposts on their Twitter, oftentimes not relating to Denny's products at all.

Zoom In

On March 1st, 2017, Denny's uploaded their version of the Zoom In meme, landing on "has this distracted you from overwhelming existential dread lol". The tweet, shown below, was massively successful, gaining over 119,000 retweets in one week.

The tweet was successful enough that it generated significant media attention. Today, People, Business Insider, and many more covered the success of the tweet. adweek dubbed it one of the most successful brand tweets ever. In his interview with the publication, Denny's Chief Marketing Officer explained that the Zoom In tweet was part of Denny's effort to remain relevant online. “It’s critical that our content be current and relevant to the conversations that are happening across America," he said.

Related Memes

Nannerpuss

Nannerpuss is an advertising mascot featured in a TV commercial for the chain restaurant Denny's. The character can be best described as a banana with googly eyes and a mustache that is cut up to look like an octopus sitting atop a stack of pancakes.

Nannerpuss first appeared in a commercial for Denny's, which aired during 2009's Super Bowl XLIII. A Twitter account was created for Nannerpuss on the day the commercial aired, replying to users who were tweeting in confusion about the commercial. The official Denny's website made the video available for download, encouraging users to share the commercial spot. On February 6th, a YTMND was created from the commercial.

John C. Miller

While the Denny's Tumblr account has been celebrated by some, it has also drawn significant backlash on Tumblr for the way the company appropriates memes for corporate purposes. On April 23rd, 2017, Tumblr user leviathan-supersystem tested the theory that Denny's would appropriate any meme by attempting to start a copypasta that stated "John C. Miller, CEO and President of the Denny’s Corporation, is a capitalist running dog and his wealth must be seized and redistributed to the people." Her post^[8] gained over 38,000 notes (shown below).

The copypasta was adopted into several memes over the next few days. On April 25th, the Denny's Tumblr adopted^[9] the meme into a chat-style text post that gained over 10,000 notes (shown below).

Following Denny's use of the meme, an-averaged-sized-person^[10] suggested on April 26th that in its place, the new copypasta meme should be “Denny’s Is Racist And No Amount Of Dank Memes Will Change That,” referencing the company's 90s racial discrimination lawsuits. Several people responded by adopting the phrase into image macros.

Search Interest

External References