A Facebook page called “Marks and Spencer Fans” shared a post claiming that the company Marks and Spencer (M&S) announced golden ticket giveaways on the occasion of Christmas. Sharing it as a message from M&S Marketing Director Sarah Louise, this post claims that M&S announced golden ticket envelopes to the first 500 people who shared this message in two active groups over the next 24 hours. This publication shared a collage of images showing people holding golden envelopes of prize money from M&S Food. According to the post, each golden ticket envelope rewarded will offer a $500 discount at all M&S retail stores. In addition, a warning note is provided below the post alerting people about copycats who provide unreliable links and attract fake prizes on the Internet. We check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Marks and Spencer (M&S) announced Christmas gold ticket giveaways.
Fact: Sharry Cramond is the Marketing Director of M&S Food, and recently she did not advertise any ‘Golden Ticket Christmas Giveaway’ on any of her social media or M&S’s social media. There is no marketing officer named Sarah Louise working at M&S. In 2020, when another M&S fan page posted similar golden ticket giveaways citing it as a message from the M&S manager, M&S cleared it up as a scam. M&S Food has offered golden ticket gifts to customers in the past during the launch of its new UK stores. But lately, they didn’t announce any gold entry gift as part of Christmas celebrations. So the claim made in the post is FALSE
When we searched to see if Marks and Spencer (M&S) had advertised any Christmas Golden Ticket Raffle, we could not find any such announcement on the official website or social media handles from M&S. Looking at the photos carefully, you could see the text “M&S Food” on all the golden envelopes shown in these images. In one such image, the text on a golden ticket reads: “We are delighted to welcome you to our M&S NEWARK MALTINGS.” And in another picture, it was stated that the golden ticket was valid until 4th October 2018. So it can be concluded that the pictures show old envelopes of golden tickets issued by M&S Food.
When we searched for more details, we found that the current Marketing Director of M&S Food is Sharry Cramond. Sharry Cramond hasn’t announced any Golden Ticket Christmas gifts on any of her social media lately. In the latest press release issued in relation to the Christmas food announcement and the 2022 Christmas shopping campaign, M&S did not announce any gold entry gifts as part of the Christmas celebrations. These press releases can be seen here and here. No marketing officer named Sarah Louise works for M&S.
In 2020, when an M&S fan page Facebook account posted similar gold ticket giveaways while citing it as a message from the M&S manager, M&S tweeted clarified as a scam message. Several scam alert pages alerted about these fraudulent posts that attract gold ticket giveaways. Even many users in the comment section of the post said that the message is a scam.
Marks and Spencer (M&S) offered gold ticket giveaways to the first 200 customers during the launch of its M&S Foodhall stores in the Abbey Centre, Archway and other UK stores. News articles reporting on these golden ticket giveaways issued by M&S Food can be seen here , here and here . But lately, M&S company has not announced any golden ticket giveaways as part of the Christmas celebrations.
In short, this purported promotional message from “M&S” offering golden ticket giveaways as part of the Christmas celebrations is false.