Southwest Airlines does not have slogan about beating the competition–not you

Posted all over Facebook (you people, you) a provocative new image seemingly originated by Dallas-based Southwest Airlines looked to us like a fake ad, a spoof.

The image:

And indeed, we confirmed, it’s not an ad put out by Southwest.

We fired off a query on this to Southwest Airlines today and heard back by email from spokeswoman Rachel Barry, who said: “Any logo tied to this particular event is not official and was not produced by Southwest Airlines.” Berry said we could see examples of actual Southwest ads here.

Don’t just take our word on this.

WUSA TV, a Washington, D.C. CBS affiliate, declared the “beat” ad a spoof in its April 12 news story which was noted later that day in a fact check posted by the debunkists at Snopes.com, who said the ad–playing on the recent forced removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight–“did not originate with Southwest Airlines and is not the airlines’ new slogan, nor has the image ever appeared on Southwest’s social media pages” or its website.