JD Wetherspoon not amused as poppy ban tweet causes uproar

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon has stressed that its staff are not banned from wearing Remembrance Day poppies, following a message put out by a spoof Twitter account.

The prank tweet as follows: ‘Due to the ever expanding multiculturalism of our clientele and employees this year our staff will not be wearing the poppy while working’. This, somewhat predictably, sparked a flurry of angry responses from people who had not bothered to check the account’s bio: ‘The high street’s favourite pub for drink, food & despair! PARODY! NOT JD Wetherspoon!’

Sample rant: ‘A British chain refusing staff to be allowed to wear a poppy??? You are a disgrace that was the last pint I ever had in a Wetherspoon’s pub!’ And our personal favourite: ‘You'll be serving halal beer next and forcing waitresses to serve wearing a burkha. They're trying to turn Buckingham Palace into a mosque!’

The JD Wetherspoon social media team addressed many of the comments. They also tweeted: ‘Yet again, the spoof Wetherspoon Twitter account @Wetherspoon_UK has crossed the line with its distasteful and insensitive tweet about the wearing of poppies. JD Wetherspoon is in no way connected with this Twitter account and neither shares nor condones its posts. In our opinion, although the unofficial spoof account is stated to be a parody account, tweets like this are simply not funny’.

Here is Twitter’s parody, commentary, and fan account policy. Companies can complain to Twitter, and Wetherspoon has had fake accounts shut down in the past, but the guidelines state that “an account that complies with our parody policy may not be found to be violating our trademark or impersonation policies”.