No, Chipotle Is Not Giving Out Free Burritos Based On Shares [Hoaxed]

Despite the appealing promise of free burritos, we’re sad to say that Chipotle is in fact not giving away free meals to individuals who share the above macro on Facebook.

Given the popularity of the restaurant, it’s a hard offer to pass up, and our better, more rational angels hardly have a chance to scream “BULLSH**” in our ears before the deed has been done and we’re humiliated by a social scam on our own sacred timelines. This particular Chipotle hoax is one that makes rounds on social media often, and everyone who has ever shared it is still waiting for a free meal from the chain.

How do we know that this is a dyed-in-the-wool hoax? For one, because we’ve been doing this for quite a long time and are always right.

For twosies, while the macro is an obvious, blatant Photoshop/MS Paint job (tl;dr, because it’s messy), it’s nowhere to be found on either Chipotle’s official Facebook or Twitter pages. Thus, we have to conclude that it came from somewhere else other than the company. And why the hell wouldn’t it come from the company if it were real?

Let’s assume for a moment that it is a real offer. Chipotle has given killer meal deals in the past, so it’s a little plausible. But with the power at which things go viral, and the rate at which something like this would be shared, it’s not a stretch to assume that one free burrito day based on social shares would completely put Chipotle out of business. It’s not a buy-one, get-one, Chipotle is hardly struggling in its profit margins, so how does this “coupon” benefit the company’s business at all?

“But Dusten, why would someone create this macro just to mess with me?” I don’t know, Internet. They’re cruel, evil bastards, whoever they are. Most of the time, this sort of social hoax is meant to drive up likes for a faux-brand page. The fake page is then bait-and-switched, all content is scrubbed, and it’s sold (with it’s pre-built audience) to the highest bidder.

The real moral here is to stop this Chipotle hoax dead in its tracks if you see it on Facebook. We’ve reached out to the company on Twitter for comment (as if we need it) and will update this post if confirmation bias ever comes.

UPDATE:

@DustenCarlson Nope, 100% fake. It's a fake offer from a scam account. -Myra

— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) March 4, 2014