To make up for the “Crybaby” t-shirt incident, Papa John’s apologized and offered Cleveland area residents $.23 pizza on Thursday. The company stated that the discount was limited to carry-out orders only, and one pizza per person. But apparently for some Papa John’s franchises, kids don’t count as people:
Jennifer Gunn, a West Side homemaker, stood in line with her 3-year-old niece, Makenzi, who also planned to buy a pizza but was not allowed to by the store.
”Hopefully two pizzas will be enough,” said Dennison, 25. She pointed to her son, Nathan, 21 months, in a stroller. ”We’re hoping he counts for one.” (He didn’t.)
A quick check of a biology textbook confirms that yes, children are in fact human beings, a.k.a. people. Come on Papa John’s! These children are clearly a “person” in both the biological and legal sense of the word. Their parents stood in line assuming that their kids would be able to purchase a pizza and Papa John’s wouldn’t deny them their right to buy a pizza just because of their age. To simply refuse to consider these children as valid customers is pretty unfair.
Is their a minimum age requirement to buy a pizza from Papa John’s? Isn’t this a blatant example of age discrimination?
Sometimes, a viral marketing campaign dies before you even know it exists. That could be the case with the Mentos Kiss Cam. What is the Mentos Kiss Cam? My peeps at Endless Simmer break it down for you:
The concept of the Mentos Kiss Cam is pretty bizarre: a busty blond in a skimpy swimsuit emerges from the ocean, comes this close to your computer screen, instructs you to turn on your webcam, and you’re supposed to make out with her. Not kidding. She actually waits there until you move your mouth up to the computer, and then you get to French her. In case you’re into dudes and/or horses, there’s an alternate make-out option involving a dashing white knight on horseback.
But here’s the interesting part, after being live for only a couple days, the site now has a screen that says “Be Back Soon.” Endless Simmer has some speculation on why this might have happened.
If this marketing gimmick fails to make a return, it’s too bad those of us who missed it won’t get to see how bizarre it is for someone to make out with a computer screen. Oh wait…..thanks to the miracle of YouTube, we can still view the promotional trailer for the site. As Endless Simmer notes, the video contains “outrageously excited nipples.” Enjoy.
In my last post I predicted we’d see news stories tomorrow about fights breaking out or other incidents occurring with people waiting in line for pizza. That didn’t take long. Cleveland Online writes:
There are reports of 3 hour waits, stores not answering their phones, thousands of people in line, line jumpers, fights, arrests, traffic jams, stores running out of ingredients, angry people, more fights, police, and just overall chaos.
Update: A few other headlines that touch on the problems the promotion caused:
I tracked down a couple more clips on YouTube of people waiting in line for pizza in Cleveland. It appears the lines are enormous at all the stores offering the promotion. While it is quite likely that this promotion will endear Papa John’s to Cleveland residents (who doesn’t love cheap pizza?) the chaos of the situation also lends itself to a few potential problems:
Long Wait - Some customers may become upset at how difficult or time consuming it is for them to get their $.23 pizzas.
Running out of pizza - My previous post indicated that some stores will close when they run out of ingredients. This could anger people who were promised a $.23 pizza but didn’t get one.
Incidents that occur in line - I would bet $20 that at least one, if not multiple stories will come out tomorrow about a fight breaking out in one of these lines, kids in line who were caught skipping school etc.
Click below to see two video clips of the lines, as well as read my analysis of how this promotion could either help or harm Papa John’s brand image.
All day I’ve been receiving reports from my readers about the ongoing Papa John’s $.23 pizza promotion in the Cleveland area. Many are expressing frustration with busy phones and extremely long lines. Newsnet5 reports that the stores will close early if they run out of supplies. They also write:
Some customers are waiting as long as 2 ½ hours for the cheap pizza. At the University Heights Papa John’s, the wait is up to five hours.
Who has time to wait that long for pizza? This video posted about 30 minutes ago seems to confirm the lines. The video also shows that Papa John’s, at least at this specific location, is limiting peoples topping choices to either pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms or extra cheese. WTF Papa John’s? You’re sorry for your mistake, but not sorry enough to hook me up with some pinneapple?
Damn those lines are long! Not that I’m surprised, obviously people love cheap pizza. Two quick thoughts:
1. I’ll bet you every single employee working at a Cleveland area Papa John’s is just absolutely HATING life right now.
2. The homeless population in Cleveland must be having a field day going from location to location.
I’ll be curious to see more media reports tomorrow on how the promotion went.
Last week, I happened to be near NASA, so I popped into the gift shop and bought some astronaut ice cream, which I ate on Tuesday. For those of you unfamiliar with the product, it’s neapolitan (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry) ice cream that has been freeze-dried. What’s most impressive to me, is that as it starts to melt in your mouth, you actually get a little bit of the creamy texture of ice cream.
Absolut Vodka recently commissioned comedian Zach Galifianakis and Tim and Eric, from the Tim and Eric Awesome Show on Cartoon Network, to make a film for the Absolut website. Absolut told the comedians they could do whatever they want, as long as they mentioned the product.
Now, let me start by saying that Zach Galifianakis is one of my favorite comedians alive today. I saw him in DC last year and he was hilarious. But Zach, as well as Tim and Eric, don’t exactly make “mainstream” comedy. In fact, they are on the fringe of the fringe. Meaning if a company really tells them they can do “whatever they want” the company shouldn’t be surprised when the result is something bizarre. In the case of the videos they made for Absolut, the result was, in fact, bizarre (although quite funny as well).
Below is the first video they made, underneath it is the second video, which, after seeing the first video, Absolut chose not to release. Fortunately Best Week Ever got a hold of a copy of it.
USA Today has a story from a couple days ago about a man who loves PBR. No I mean REALLY loves PBR. In fact, he loves PBR so much that he had a coffin pre-made for himself that is designed to look like a PBR can. Then, after the coffin was completed, he filled it with ice and PBR’s, and threw a party with friends. Wow.
It looks like the fervor over the Papa John’s “Crybaby” t-shirts has reached both Craigs List and ebay.
There appear to be at least 3 postings on the Washington, DC craigslist site requesting one of the shirts if anyone has one they are willing to sell. Additionally, there appear to be one or two dozen shirts posted on ebay right now. However, it appears that all of the shirts are being sold by a company called the Urban Soldier Clothing Company. The “item location” is listed as being from Los Angeles, CA, which leads me to believe these aren’t original shirts from the game this past Friday, but rather reprints being made by an enterprising businessman.
How can one confirm if a shirt put up for sale is an original, “from the game” t-shirts? If there is a way to confirm that, how much money do people think one of those shirts ultimately sell for?
The Washington Examiner has an article today called “A King’s Feast” talking about the role So Good played in breaking the “Crybaby” t-shirt story. Below are a few excerpts from the original article:
Here’s how the story unfolded — and it might not have gone anywhere if not for local blogger Jon Eick of sogoodblog.com — in the last few days.
First came Haywood’s comment that Cavs forward LeBron James needed to stop being a crybaby about the hard fouls. Then came a local Papa John’s chain — it’s uncertain which one — printing T-shirts with the number 23 and the words, “Crybaby 23” (along with the Papa John’s logo). A very few handful of fans wore them to the game; but one of those fans was shown often on TV.
Eick, who says in his blog that he’s a Wizards fan, then blogged about it, igniting a firestorm. (A Wizards spokesman said the team had nothing to do with the T-shirts). Turns out Eick found more than a dozen Papa John’s located within 12 miles of Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.
The segment from WJW Fox 8 about the “Crybaby” t-shirt incident has been posted online. It provides a good overview of the whole story. It features some coverage of So Good breaking the story, and they used two segements from my phone interview with them. Unlike the story I was cited in by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, this segment came out after Papa John’s had issued an apology, which allowed them to cover even more details of the story. The segment from Fox 8 can be viewed below:
Behind the Lens is reporting that the Fox 8 segment I was interviewed for just aired. As part of the segment, they announced that Papa John’s has issued a formal apology for the “Crybaby” T-shirt situation.
Behind the Lens writes:
They are donating $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund, and this Thursday all PJ’s Cleveland locations will be offering Large 1-Topping pizzas for 23 cents (pick-up only).
I must say, I’m somewhat impressed by the response time. Granted a media storm was quickly building in the state of Ohio, and Papa John’s had to realize they (or one of their franchise owners) screwed up. That being said, their PR team clearly went into action over the weekend, and it only took them about 48 hours from the time of the game, and about 40 hours from when my story first broke, to address the matter. The $.23 pizza for Cleveland residents is a nice ode to Lebron, who wears number 23, and donating money to the Cavs Youth Foundation is also a classy move.
It will be interesting to see how Lebron and/or the city of Cleveland reacts to this apology.
The following comment was left on my original post about the Papa John’s “Crybaby” t-shirt incident. It came from a Papa John’s corporate e-mail address and may be an early indication of how the corporate office is reacting. It confirms what we’ve been hearing about these shirts being sponsored by “rogue” franchise owners in DC and not by Papa John’s main corporate office.
Sorry! // May 4, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I understand your anger about this t-shirt issue at the Washington Wizards/Cleveland Cavaliers game. We here at Papa Johns Pizza in OHIO do not endorse the actions taken at that game. The individuals involved were not in any way associated with the Papa John’s brand here in Ohio. We support the Cleveland Cavaliers and are GREAT fans of LeBron James.” The best news about this incident is that Cleveland won the game and knocked Washington out of the playoffs.
I also share your anger about this. It is the D.C Papa Johns Pizza Franchise who had a very poor marketing campaign. They did this without thinking about the repercussion here in Ohio! Even though we are all Papa Johns Pizza, each Franchise is separate from the other. Unfortunately, they can do for lack of a better word something as reckless as this to help their market in D.C. They did not get any approval from Ohio market or Corporate to do so. We obviously would have strenuously declined such a marketing campaign that would pick a side of any sport/politic or religious views. It’s not how we do business.
Please accept my apologies and know that this issue is being handled at the highest level at our corporate headcounters in Louisville Kentucky.
For those of you just starting to follow this story, to get some background you can read my original post and follow-up coverage about the “Crybaby” t-shirts that were at the Wizards-Cavs Game 6 and featured a Papa John’s logo on them.
One quick note for those of you contacting me for information related to a boycott, please be aware that I am merely REPORTING on this story and analyzing it from a strategic marketing angle. I am NOT advocating any action whatsoever. I am, remember, a Wizards fan, not a Cavs fan. I am happy to track this story for my readers as it unfolds because I find it fascinating, but my role in this is purely to report what I learn.
So where does the story stand as of Sunday afternoon at 1 PM?
Following up on the Cleveland Plain Dealer story I was interviewed for, a couple hours ago I did a phone interview with WJW Fox 8 in Cleveland for a story about the t-shirts that will be aired on the local news this afternoon.
The Cleveland based sports blog Waiting for Next Year suggests a boycott is not the best option to resolve the issue, and is soliciting feedback from Cavs fans about what should happen next:
“What do we want? What can Papa John’s do to appease the Cleveland fan? If they showed up with free pizzas at the next game does that do it? If they print an apology in the Plain Dealer does that get them off the hook? Should someone lose their job? Do you want Papa John himself to ask LeBron’s forgiveness? How do you want this to end??? Because the last thing I want to see happen is Papa John’s make some lame attempt at an appology and turn it into a marketing campaign and free publicity. So let’s hear it Cleveland fans, what do you want from Papa John’s?”
Additionally, in the story over at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a few people leaving comments have pointed out that Papa John’s franchise owners in the Cleveland area had NOTHING to do with this marketing idea, and are likely Cavs fans themselves. Such as this comment, left by “folio12″:
“We, as proud Clevelanders need to make sure that we NEVER boycott something or someone who is working hard to make a living in OUR city. What those yahoos in DC did, has nothing to do with Joe Schmo working to make ends meet here. Don’t one DC person hurt many hardworking Clevelanders.”
A valid point. We may have to wait until tomorrow to find out who signed off on this marketing idea, and what, if any, role the Papa John’s corporate office had. All signs right now point to a franchise owner (or owners) in DC being responsible for these shirts.
My previous post, reporting on shirts sponsored by Papa John’s declaring Lebron James a “Crybaby”, had become cluttered with so many updates, I decided to summarize them in a new post. Since I first posted the story a little less than 24 hours ago, the news has really taken off, with coverage from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and a number of Ohio residents urging a boycott of the pizza chain.
Let’s summarize what has happened in the past 24 hours:
By mid-afternoon Saturday, the story was starting to spread like wildfire. Cavs fans online began suggesting a boycott HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. In the comments of my original post, a delivery driver for Papa John’s wrote:
“We received two faxes talking about the shirt, followed by threats to boycott.”
A General Manager for a Northeast Ohio Papa John’s added:
“we have received calls of people wanting to boycott us, but hopefully something will come out ASAP from Corporate as a nationwide apology.”
Around 5 PM, the Cleveland Plain Dealer contacted me for an interview as part of a story they were planning to write about the shirts.
Shortly after 11 PM, the Cleveland Plain Dealer posted their story about the t-shirts on their website. The story notes, among other things, that the decision to give out these shirts was NOT authorized by the corporate office.
By 11:30 PM, I had received word that less than 24 hours after So Good broke the story, someone had put up a website called Boycott Papa John’s:
This story seems to be spreading faster and faster, and the snowball effect is continuing unabated. I would imagine Papa John’s will have to make a statement or an apology soon, before the “Crybaby” t-shirt news spirals further out of control. If the article written by the Cleveland Plain Dealer ends up in their print edition tomorrow morning, it will be interesting to see what effect that has on the volume of complaints coming from Cavs fans.
Update: I have received word that Papa John’s has formally apologized for the incident. Click over to So Good’s front page to read about the apology and other updates on the story from the past 24 hours. My original post about the “Crybaby” T-shirts appears below:
Earlier tonight I attended the Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers playoff game 6 at the Verizon Center in DC. Over the course of my night, one thing really surprised me. A few fans around the arena had shirts mocking Lebron James. The shirts had the number 23 on them, with the word “Crybaby” across the back. This kind of taunting is common at NBA arenas. But what was most shocking was that the shirts featured the Papa John’s logo, and appeared to be sponsored by, and paid for by, Papa John’s Pizza.
Lebron James is one of, if not THE most popular player in the NBA. Not only that, he is beloved in the state of Ohio. I was perplexed why Papa John’s Pizza would put their name on a t-shirt that so openly taunted such a well-liked athlete. The decision to sponsor these shirts seems incredibly ill advised.
The only rational would be if Papa John’s has a lot of franchises in Washington, DC, but none in the state of Ohio. However, as a national chain, I was skeptical that they didn’t have a presence in the state. Sure enough, a quick check on the Papa John’s website, using their restaurant locater, shows that there are TEN different Papa John’s pizza outlets just within 12 miles of the Cleveland Cavaliers arena.
So the question now is, why did Papa John’s decide to sponsor a promotion that will surely piss off a ton of Cavaliers fans and Ohio residents? Will Papa John’s start to lose business because angry residents don’t appreciate them openly mocking the most popular athlete in the state of Ohio? Will this end up hurting Papa John’s profits, or damage their company name? Will it lead to a boycott of Papa John’s by Cleveland Cavaliers fans?
A little less than a week ago, Burger King announced that they will soon begin selling a burger in Britain that retails for $170.
The burger will be made of premium Kobe beef and garnished with rare blue cheese. It was originally reported that the burger would be topped with foie gras. However, Fish and Chimps, PETA’s blog for Europe, is now reporting that Burger King confirmed to them that they would NOT be using foie gras in the burger. Either way, it’s pretty obvious that this burger is going to cost you a boatload of scrilla.
Yeah, yeah, I’m a total homer and I love anything Vermont related. And yes, Ben and Jerry spoke at my high school for graduation once. And yeah, I think Ben and Jerry’s is about 10 times better than any other ice cream on the market. But put all of those details aside, and the fact still remains: Free Cone Day is the bomb. Well guess what? Free Cone Day is TODAY! So get your ass down to your nearest Ben and Jerry’s and enjoy.
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