In-N-Out Burger takes on bizarre threat to its popular brand

In-N-Out Burger was the first drive-thru hamburger stand in California when it opened its doors in 1948. Today, the menu is largely the same, although its famous Double-Double burger was not added to the menu until 1963.

In-N-Out has a huge following, with fans loving its “secret” menu, including Animal Style burgers cooked in mustard with extra spread, pickles, and grilled onions.  

And speculation abounds regarding what’s in the company’s special spread.

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With the restaurant looking to expand into new locations in 2025 and build upon its great success, it needs to do everything possible to protect the strong brand it has built. 

That’s why it is now taking on a surprising threat to its rock-solid company reputation.

In-N-Out Burger has a solid brand it wants to protect. 

Image Source: Trent Garverick on Pixabay

In-N-Out faces unusual threat to its reputation

In-N-Out is known for affordable prices, fresh ingredients, and consistent quality, and obviously it wants to maintain that reputation and avoid scandals. That’s why the company is taking aggressive action after some disturbing videos went viral recently.

Specifically, Bryan Arnett, a content creator with over 600,000 followers on Instagram and YouTube, has published some videos that upset In-N-Out Burger.

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The latest of those videos was uploaded on April 25 and showed Arnett impersonating an In-N-Out employee at a Glendale location. Arnett went to the location when it was closed on Easter and talked with customers who had pulled up to the restaurant to order food. 

The customers didn’t know that they were being pranked – they just thought they were ordering.

Arnett was dressed up as an In-N-Out employee, and while he pretended to take real orders, he offered fake menu items to some customers, said offensive things to others, and pretended a cockroach was found in one customer’s order.

This is not Arnett’s first prank against In-N-Out, as he previously put up a fake Employee of the Month poster and tried to pay with pennies for random orders made by other customers.

The company is taking legal action

Unsurprisingly, In-N-Out isn’t thrilled about having a fake employee offending real customers, and then posting the video to cause confusion about whether it was actually a real worker saying these offensive things and finding bugs in the food.

The company has decided it has had enough and has filed a lawsuit against Arnett. In-N-Out claims that the creator “falsely” represented the company and that Arnett’s “lewd, unsettling, and bizarre” videos constituted defamatory content. The lawsuit states that the comments “reflected directly and negatively on In-N-Out.”

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In-N-Out told the court that it had already sent Arnett a cease-and-desist letter. However, the burger chain wants to recover all of the money he made from his viral videos that pranked the company.

If In-N-Out prevails in the lawsuit, Arnett would also be permanently banned from all restaurant locations and held legally liable for proven financial damages that the company suffered as a result of his actions.

It remains to be seen how the lawsuit will play out. For now, Arnett has made videos featuring the burger chain private.

The creator also posted another private video showing him eating food from the chain in his car and responding to the lawsuit, stating, “I’m not gonna sit here and act surprised. When I went out and filmed the video, I kinda knew what kind of waters I was stepping into.”

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He said that while he was aware that he was “teetering the line a little bit, pushing my luck,” he’s also not worried about the suit. “Like yeah, sure, it’ll probably be annoying or whatever, but whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen.”

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