Shake Shack comes to the rescue after Chick-Fil-A shuts down a TikToker for breaking company rules

When Chick-fil-A almost kept an worker’s bag, she reversed course and acquired one other one. This is the story of 22-year-old TikTok creator @mirithesiren.

Since December 2023, Miriam, an worker at a local Chick-fil-A in Southern California, has been sharing free meals with TikTok users on her lunch break. Some of her videos even featured latest menu items. Her meal reviews have garnered between 14,000 and 500,000 views.

However, despite positive reviews of the food and drinks items, Miriam claims that she was contacted by senior management that the videos were against company policy.

“I was contacted by Chick-fil-A senior management and PR to inform me that my videos were in fact violating a rule in our employee handbook,” she explained. “I want to make it clear that this rule was in place before I even started making videos with Chick-fil-A. Unfortunately, Chick-fil-A is not willing to make an exception for me or work with me.”

“I want to make it clear that this is not a punishment. It’s not like I did anything wrong in my videos or said anything in the comments that caused them to stop posting more videos (…) Chick-fil-A PR actually mentioned that they loved my videos.”

According to Miriam, she has gained 50,000 followers on TikTok in only a few months, and her latest Chick-fil-A video, which is a review of the restaurant’s cherry and blueberry drink, has received 2 million views. The aspiring content creator clearly remained humble, grateful, and appreciative of all the support she received online.

At the end of her announcement video, Miriam stated that despite being upset together with her employer’s decision, she hopes to work with other brands. Shake Shack heard her loud and clear and accepted the offer just a few days later.

Her latest video, posted on April 21, is a paid collaboration with Shake Shack.

“Today we’re at Shake Shack showcasing their chicken sandwich,” Miriam begins in the video.

“Chick-fil-A was rummaging through the bag” – social media users react.

“Chicken sandwich on Sunday (and) no antibiotics. Phew, Jesus! Is it Palm Sunday?!” – wrote the TikToker under his video.

Social media users are reacting to Miri’s latest video, stating that Chick-fil-A missed out on what would have been a great collaboration with their worker.

“Oh! “CFA dropped the bag and Shake Shack caught it,” replied a TikTok user under Miri’s video. “I like watching it. I like this for our girl.

“It’s called Reverse Uno! Congratulations, honey,” one other person commented.

And it looks like Shake Shack made the right move because Miriam’s video influenced people to select Shake Shack.

“Shake Shack, you made a solid move. “I think I’ll have one for dinner tonight,” the TikToker replied.

“Let me drive 45 minutes to get to Shake Shack now,” one other said.

Industry leaders are also calling Chick-fil-A’s motion a “missed opportunity.”

“Instead of throwing punches, Chick-fil-A should have … partnered with this excited employee to co-create content,” said Hannah Giardino, a social media manager at the tech company is LinkedIn.

He adds: “Most have missed the opportunity and it has basically already opened itself up to do it for other brands. “It could have been a really interesting and authentic brand game and it could very well have been intended for the competition.”

“We, like the rest of its community, were disappointed to hear that this chapter was coming to an end,” said Mike McGarry, vice chairman of brand name marketing for Shake Shack. “We loved the energy and authenticity Miri brought to her content.”

McGarry added that the company partnered with Miri because “everything about her content seemed consistent with Shake Shack’s ethos of high-quality food and a strong community.”