Skip to main content

This year, the White House asked the Internet to judge its turkey pardoning

years white house turkey pardoning hands internet
The yearly presidential turkey pardoning is a strange, strange tradition. While neither bird will become dinner, it’s a very quasi-Hunger Games approach to naming one of the feathered friends the National Thanksgiving Turkey (real title).

And this year, the White House has asked us to participate in the decision. The White House website has a landing page asking if you’re #TeamCaramel or #TeamPopcorn. (Oh good God, why did we have to give them names?! They’re basically human to me now.)

The site has a nice breakdown of each turkey’s stats – they’re both four month old males, and Caramel’s the heftier of the two. While Popcorn has a “proud strut,” Caramel’s gait is “steady and deliberate.” The rest of the turkey’s aesthetics and personality traits can be found below.

turkey voting

There’s even a Soundcloud clip of each turkey’s gobble, in case the government hasn’t tugged at your heartstrings enough.

Voting ran until last night, with people casting their ballots for the turkeys through Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter by using the appropriate #TeamCaramel or #TeamPopcorn hashtag. Only one turkey could take home the coveted title.

The White House could not have used a more diverse social media strategy here – and while the subject matter (turkeys?) is perhaps a bit trivial, it pulled in a lot of activity.

The winner will be announced later today, and it appears both turkeys are quite popular across the board. Although, there are considerably more photos tagged #TeamCaramel on Instagram, but they aren’t regarding the turkey. Here are the best social media-cast votes for the turkeys — and be sure to catch the thrilling conclusion later today.

https://twitter.com/BrandoMorrissey/statuses/405721986791247872

It's a @WhiteHouse conspiracy theory! #TeamPopcorn must be declared the pardoned turkey now. #GOBBLEGATE

— Madeline Marshall (@Maddie_Marshall) November 27, 2013

https://twitter.com/LesHorn/statuses/405420877690318848

Molly McHugh
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…
Twitter CEO claims platform had best day last week
A stylized composite of the Twitter logo.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted on Monday that despite the current fuss over Meta’s new and very similar Threads app, Twitter had its largest usage day last week.

Subtly including the name of Meta’s new app, which launched to great fanfare last Wednesday, Yaccarino did her best to sing Twitter’s praises, tweeting: “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread … but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”

Read more
Meta brings cartoon avatars to video calls on Instagram and Messenger
Meta's cartoon avatars for Instagram and Messenger.

The pandemic was supposed to have made us all comfortable with video calls, but many folks still don’t particularly enjoy the process.

Having to think about what to wear, or how our hair looks, or even fretting about puffy eyes following another bout of hay fever can sometimes be a bit much, even more so if it’s an early-morning call and your brain is still in bed.

Read more
Twitter is now giving money to some of its creators
A lot of white Twitter logos against a blue background.

Some Twitter users are now earning money via ads in the replies to their tweets.

New Twitter owner Elon Musk announced the revenue-sharing program in February, and on Thursday some of those involved have been sharing details of their first payments.

Read more