Yuma Sun

Papa John’s starts pulling its founder’s image from marketing

-

NEW YORK — Papa John’s, which has featured founder John Schnatter as a spokesman in logos and TV ads, has begun pulling his image from its marketing and pledged to assess its diversity practices in response to his use of a racial slur.

Schnatter’s face was off some materials by Friday, though the pizza chain said there are no plans to change its name. Schnatter is still on the board and is the company’s largest shareholde­r — meaning he remains a key presence.

CEO Steve Ritchie said Friday the company will retain an outside expert to audit its processes related to diversity and inclusion. And he said senior managers will hold “listening sessions” to give employees a platform for any concerns.

“Papa John’s is not an individual. Papa John’s is a pizza company with 120,000 corporate and franchise team members around the world,” he said in a statement.

Schnatter came under fire this week after a Forbes report that he used the N-word during a media training conference call in May. When asked how he would distance himself from racist groups, Schnatter reportedly complained that Colonel Sanders never faced a backlash for using the word.

Schnatter subsequent­ly said he would resign as chairman and issued a statement of apology acknowledg­ing the use of “inappropri­ate and hurtful” language.

In a radio interview with WHAS in Louisville on Friday, Schnatter said he was “just talking the way that the Colonel talked.” He said the comment was taken out of context but that he neverthele­ss felt “sick” about the incident.

“I said it, and it’s wrong,” he said.

In addition to appearing in TV ads in the past, Schnatter’s image has been on packaging and in a logo that usually is all over the website of the Louisville, Kentucky-based company.

Papa John’s has acknowledg­ed in regulatory filings that Schnatter’s role as its pitchman could be a liability if his reputation was damaged. The company got a taste of that last year, when Schnatter stepped down as CEO after blaming disappoint­ing pizza sales on the outcry surroundin­g football players kneeling during the national anthem.

Keith Hollingswo­rth, a professor with Morehouse College’s business department, said keeping Schnatter in the marketing and advertisin­g would signal to people that the company does not have a problem with his comments, or that it doesn’t think they are a big deal.

“Five years from now, they might be able to start bringing him back. But at the moment, you have to be very decisive and show you take this very seriously,” Hollingswo­rth said.

The company cannot afford to alienate customers, with sales already under pressure from rivals such as Domino’s. For the first three months of this year, Papa John’s said a key sales figure fell 5.3 percent in North America.

Schnatter owns nearly 30 percent of the company’s shares, which fell after the report but rebounded when he said he would depart as chairman. They ended little changed Friday.

Other fallout continued Friday. The University of Louisville said it will remove the Papa John’s name from its football stadium, and that it will rename the John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise at its business college. Earlier in the week, the school said Schnatter resigned from its board of trustees.

PHILADELPH­IA — A federal appeals court says airport security screeners can’t be sued over alleged mistreatme­nt because they aren’t law-enforcemen­t officers.

Judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concede that their decision leaves people who are mistreated by screeners with limited legal options.

Nadine Pellegrino of Florida claimed Transporta­tion Security Administra­tion agents at the Philadelph­ia airport mistreated her and damaged her property in 2006. Screeners said she hit two of them with a bag.

Pellegrino was arrested but found not guilty at trial. Major League Baseball She and her husband filed a had also said it was indefi- misconduct claim against nitely suspending a promotion TSA, seeking $951,200. with Papa John’s that The appeals court voted offered people discounts 2-1 Wednesday to uphold a at the pizza chain after a lower court ruling that TSA player hit a grand slam. screeners get immunity because

Papa John’s Internatio­nal they perform an administra­tive Inc., which began job and aren’t operations in 1984, has law-enforcemen­t officers more than 5,200 locations who can be sued under federal globally. law.

 ?? ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? THIS DEC. 21, 2017, FILE PHOTO shows signs, including one featuring Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, at a Papa John’s pizza store in Quincy, Mass. Papa John’s plans to pull Schnatter’s image from marketing materials after reports he used a racial...
ASSOCIATED PRESS THIS DEC. 21, 2017, FILE PHOTO shows signs, including one featuring Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, at a Papa John’s pizza store in Quincy, Mass. Papa John’s plans to pull Schnatter’s image from marketing materials after reports he used a racial...

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States