Origin
In December 2020, online advertisements displayed on an unknown number of websites led to a 50-page article on the website Money Pop that listed American restaurants purportedly closing their doors and going out of business for good in 2020. Taco Bell was purportedly closing, as was Olive Garden. We previously reported that a photograph of an Olive Garden sign was one of the images in such online advertisements, even though the restaurant chain was not going bankrupt.
This advertisement read: “Closing Time: Here’s All The Restaurant Chains Closing in 2020.” A picture of Taco Bell appeared when readers shared the story on social media:
Origin
In December 2020, an online advertisement displayed a picture of an Olive Garden Italian Restaurant sign along with text that read: “Closing Time: Here’s All The Restaurant Chains Closing in 2020.”
This advertisement was misleading. Olive Garden is not closing all of its restaurants. Readers who clicked the advertisement were led to a 50-page story on the website Money Pop.
While the advertisement promised a list of restaurant chains that would be closing in 2020, the headline on the actual story was different: “These Popular Restaurant Chains Are Losing Money Fast.”
The story mentioned Olive Garden, but it only mentioned that two locations had closed in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Birmingham, Alabama, in March and April, respectively.