Jimmy Fallon Used To Own The Rights To Olive Garden's Famous Slogan For Some Reason
In 2012, Olive Garden changed its longtime slogan, "When you're here, you're family," which had been synonymous with the Italian restaurant chain for 14 years. This was part of a rebranding for the company; the idea was to focus less on lengthy dinners and advertise itself as a more modernized establishment. To show how modern it was becoming, Olive Garden even hired "Modern Family" star Julie Bowen to voice their new commercials. "We had been more about this traditional family meal — that long, lingering meal, with lots of laughter, lots of joy," Jay Spenchian, executive vice president of marketing at Olive Garden, told CBS amid the rebrand. Olive Garden also introduced a "Lighter Italian Fare" menu to offer healthier options for guests. These drastic changes came at a time when the company had experienced a drop in attendance for 23 of its last 24 months.
With "When you're here, you're family" vacated as the slogan for the chain, Jimmy Fallon vied to have it become the phrase for his show. "So, they're getting rid of the slogan [and] we reached out to Olive Garden and said, 'If you're not going to use that slogan anymore, can we have it?' and they said yes,'" he announced on an episode of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" in 2013. This was not just a bit on the late night program, as the president of Olive Garden came on to make the slogan transfer official.
Olive Garden signed over the slogan
The president of Olive Garden, Dave George, came on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" to hand the "When you're here, you're family" slogan over to Jimmy Fallon. It was not merely a handshake agreement, as George brought a contract on-air for the comedian to sign. "If I sign this and you sign this, then, When you're here, you're family' becomes a 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' slogan?" Fallon asked the Olive Garden president to make it clear to the audience. Following a dramatic drumroll, they both signed the contract. To mark the occasion, the host announced that each member of the crowd would be given "Late Night" shirts which had the show's new slogan on the back, plus a $100 gift card to Olive Garden.
According to Tara Gray, a spokesperson for Olive Garden, the deal to transfer the slogan over to the late night host had been in the works for weeks before the company's president appeared on-air, per the Orlando Sentinel. Reportedly, Olive Garden licensed the phrase to Fallon's show, but the company still owned the rights.
After the contract was signed, "Late Night" aired a sketch that was a parody of an Olive Garden commercial. Fallon sat at a makeshift Olive Garden table with other members of the show, and they made several gags about "unlimited breadsticks." Years later, Fallon put the slogan to use in another Olive Garden-centric bit as he signed the phrase over to a famous guest.
Jimmy Fallon gave the slogan to Post Malone
When Post Malone was a guest on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" in 2018, he and Jimmy Fallon visited an Olive Garden as part of a segment for the show. The pair were filmed pulling up to the restaurant in a pink stretch limo, and they both shouted the "When you're here, you're family" slogan upon arrival. Surprisingly, Fallon said it was his first time visiting an Olive Garden. The rapper and comedian were filmed enjoying a complimentary wine sampling, and then Malone gave Fallon a few tips on how best to apply butter to Olive Garden's famous breadsticks.
Once the food was finished, Fallon had a gift for the "Rockstar" rapper. Similar to when the late night host had the restaurant's former slogan signed over to him five years earlier, he had a contract brought out on-air. "I legally own, 'When you're here, you're family.' I want to transfer everything over to you," he told Malone while presenting the documents. Both men signed the contract and then jokingly left the restaurant with a barrel filled with complimentary peanuts.