(EATER)Papa John’s, the pizzeria equivalent of the shrug emoji, is now doing everything it can to try to distance itself from toxic white su...
As you may recall, Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter recently blamed his group’s declining sales on the NFL players’ protest during the national anthem. The company took a beating on social media after this reveal, and its rival, DiGiorno, launched a hilarious shade war on Twitter in response to this debacle. Toward the end of last week, the Daily Stormer — which lost its domain host after its coverage of the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia over the summer — posted a photo of a pizza with a pepperoni swastika, with the caption: “Papa John: Official pizza of the alt-right?” The author of this post, Adrian Sol also wrote that it was “starting to make economic sense to be pro-White,” and that this “might be the first time ever in modern history that a major institution is going to be completely destroyed explicitly because of public outrage over their anti-white agenda.” This post spawned a few disgusting memes, including one that incrporated KKK imagery.
Shortly after the Daily Stormer post went live, Peter Collins, the director of PR for Papa John’s, issued a statement denouncing the hate group’s message. “We condemn racism in all forms and any and all hate groups that support it.” Collins explained. “We do not want these individuals or groups to buy our pizza.” That’s some pretty decisive language, but it might not be enough to win back customers who were turned away by Schnatter’s remarks about the NFL, even before the Daily Stormer’s endorsement.
Another, much less serious issue that the company faces, is the fact that this whole fiasco has only highlighted how so many people think Papa John’s serve garbage pizza.
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