Olive Garden Receipt Prompts Brandjacking Debate on Reddit

A receipt from a customer at Olive Garden showing that a sympathetic manager had comped a meal went viral on Reddit and then prompted further discussion when a putative ad exec denounced it as fake

Early Wednesday morning, a Redditor named Tanek42 posted an image of the receipt. The explanation read: "My brother, wife, 3 year-old daughter and I went to Olive Garden after a recent house fire at my parents. When the manager asked how everything was my daughter said 'Grandpa's house burned down'. Here's how we received the check."

The post got more than 1,000 comments, many of which were skeptical about the receipt's veracity. One pointed out, for instance, that the Olive Garden logo was "perfectly framed" to the left. The debate entered a new phase, however, when Iworkinadvertising, another Redditor, claimed, "That Olive Garden receipt is fake; it's free advertising. I know because I work in advertising and have spoken to the people who plan these campaigns" and submitted himself for an AMA