In November 2023, a series of online advertisements on Facebook and Instagram raised concerns about the closure of Olive Garden, an Italian restaurant chain. The ads featured a photo of an Olive Garden restaurant with the word “CLOSING” in red capital letters at the top. The captions of the ads suggested that the chain was shutting down all its locations, going bankrupt, or facing other business-related issues.
However, these ads were found to be false and misleading. Despite the alarming messages conveyed in the ads, Olive Garden is not closing all its restaurants or going out of business. The ads were part of a clickbait strategy designed to attract users to a lengthy article on the Investing.com website. The article, titled “Last Call: These Chain Stores Are Closing Locations in 2023,” listed 216 businesses, mostly American brands, and provided information about whether they would be closing some or all of their locations. Olive Garden was mentioned in the article at number 191.
According to the article, Olive Garden had announced the closure of 45 locations due to a decline in customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. These closures mainly affected smaller, older locations in California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Additionally, the chain planned to reduce its overall restaurant count by another 40 locations within the next two years, spanning several states such as Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, and Ohio. Olive Garden assured that employees affected by these closures would receive transition assistance as part of their separation packages.
To clarify the situation, Darden Restaurants, the company that owns Olive Garden, confirmed that the claim of widespread closures was false. Jessica Dinon, the company’s senior director of communications in social media and creative services, stated that she was unsure of the source of the misinformation but assured that it was not true.
In fact, Olive Garden has been a highly profitable venture for Darden Restaurants, with a consistent increase in the number of its restaurant locations over the years. According to data provided on Darden Restaurants’ website, the chain had 858 locations in 2018, which grew to 906 by late 2023.
The existence of these clickbait ads and articles can be attributed to a strategy known as advertising arbitrage. Advertisers aim to generate more revenue from ads displayed within lengthy articles than the cost of the initial clickbait ad that attracts users to the article.
In conclusion, the claims made in the online advertisements suggesting the closure of Olive Garden were false. The chain is not going out of business, and the ads were part of a clickbait strategy. Olive Garden continues to thrive as a profitable restaurant chain with a growing number of locations.
