Fact Check

Did Southwest Airlines Change Their Slogan After United Airlines Controversy?

An image purportedly showing a new Southwest Airlines slogan was created as a convincing joke.

Published April 12, 2017

Claim:
Southwest Airlines changed their slogan to capitalize on the public relations misfortunes of competitor United Airlines.

In April 2017, social media was abuzz with jokes and memes at United Airlines' expense after a video surfaced showing a passenger being forcibly removed from a flight. Although many of these graphics were obviously created in jest, a few items, such as this fake news story about President Trump's alleged reaction or this photograph showing the armed guards of the airline's Speacial Seating And Apparel Division, managed to fool internet users.

An image purportedly showing a new logo for Southwest Airlines was also created in the wake of this controversy:

A spokesperson for the airline told WUSA 9:

Any logo tied to this particular event is not official and was not produced by Southwest Airlines.

This image was most likely created by Reddit user "Voksul" as a joke; it 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 their web site.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.