Everyone who shares or comments on a Facebook post shared by a Wetherspoons account is entitled to a free meal for two to celebrate the retirement of the chain’s boss, Tim Martin and him handing the business to his son Ryan.
Wetherspoons has confirmed that no such offer exists, and the pub chain doesn’t have any official social media accounts. The man in the image is not Tim Martin’s son, but a Conservative MP.
After deleting a post we fact checked recently, a Facebook account using the name “JD Wetherspoon” has shared another post claiming that the pub chain Wetherspoons is offering free meals to people who spread it.
The new post, which has now been shared almost 4,000 times, says: “Hello everyone! I’m Tim Martin, founder and owner of Wetherspoons. I’m very pleased to introduce you to my son Ryan Martin.
“Next week I will be retiring and handing over all control to my eldest Son. Before I depart I’d like to do one last good deed to say thanks because without all of you we wouldn’t be here today.
“So everyone who shares+comments within the next 7 days will receive a meal for two on us! This can be used for Breakfast, lunch or dinner at any Wetherspoons establishment.”
The post also contains a link which appears to be related to the Wetherspoons giveaway, but actually takes users to a website offering “rewards” with no mention of Wetherspoons.
A spokesperson for Wetherspoons described the post as “complete twaddle”.
The man in the image alongside Mr Martin in this new post—presumably meant to be his son—is actually Conservative MP for Workington Mark Jenkinson.
The previous version of this claim that we checked also claimed to show an image of Mr Martin with his son, but that appeared to be a picture of him with a journalist.
Wetherspoons says on its official website that it doesn’t run any social media pages, adding: “Any profiles promoted on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are not endorsed or maintained by the company.”
Image courtesy of Oast House Archive
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this Facebook account has previously shared similar posts, and Wetherspoons has confirmed that no such offer exists.
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