Chicken, Biscuits and…Cake? Bojangles rings in 45 years!

How Luquire celebrated the iconic fast food brand’s birthday, featuring a special kind of birthday cake, a foundation launch and more

The year was 1977. Jimmy Carter had just been sworn in as America’s 39^th president; 20^th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures were flying high after releasing “Star Wars” and “Saturday Night Fever,” respectively, and, on July 6, Bojangles opened its first location on Charlotte’s West Boulevard – still open to this day.  

Bojangles tasked its longtime public relations partner Luquire to brainstorm a host of unique and creative ideas to celebrate Bo’s 45^th birthday, which happened to fall on National Fried Chicken Day. Alongside the Bojangles team, Luquire got to work crafting a plan to honor Bo’s dedicated staff, give back to educators (one of the pillars of Bojangles’ charitable efforts) and have fun with some of its fan-favorite menu items.  

Recognizing an opportunity to capitalize on the viral Netflix series “Is It Cake?,” where professional bakers create scarily realistic cakes of items and judges are challenged to discover which item is real and which is cake, the Luquire team tapped Netflix star, professional baker and fellow Southerner Nina Charles to create her cake version of a Bo’s Chicken Sandwich, Seasoned Fries and Legendary Iced Tea. Nina’s creations fooled even the most confident of taste testers on WCNC, WCCB and WBTV!  

And while local viewers were trying to spot the faux fried chicken, the newly launched Bojangles Foundation Fund, opened applications for up to 45 $1,000 grants to be awarded to nonprofit organizations dedicated to promoting literacy in their communities. Luquire helped Bojangles announce the Foundation’s inception on the biggest national stage: TODAY, via the Foundation’s first-ever charitable gift. In partnership with host Jenna Bush Hager, who has a deep connection to literacy as part of her work with the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and Read with Jenna, the Bojangles Foundation Fund donated $10,000 and 100 books to the Mrs. Jean Herbert Scholarship Fund in honor of Mrs. Herbert, a longtime educator and servant leader at Towson University with a very touching story to tell. The donation highlighted the importance of educators in our communities and served as the perfect way to officially unveil the brand’s new Foundation. 

With dozens of media hits ranging from a front-page feature of a Bojangles employee in Greensboro, North Carolina’s News & Record to a  TV shoutout in Huntsville, Alabama, the campaign overall garnered an audience of over 35 million people – from Nebraska to New York, and beyond. As a longtime partner and cheerleader of the Bojangles brand, we couldn’t be more excited to see what the next 45 years of this celebrated brand bring!