Fresh off a NFL sponsorship, Papa John’s Pizza owner, John Schnatter, stands smiling, shaking Peyton Manning’s hand on national television. Yet, only weeks prior to these commercials, many Americans had seen the face of the popular franchise in a less than favorable light.
The reason? A defective mixture of pizza and politics.
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter suggested cutting work hours for Papa John’s employees in order to bring them below the 30 hour per week threshold that would require him to provide employees with health care benefits described by President Obama’s healthcare policies. Public disapproval was serious enough to force Schnatter to publish an opinion-editorial piece in which he denied his plans for cutting hours.
Schnatter was not the only business owner met with public disapproval; others included Denny’s franchisee John Metz and Applebees franchisee Zane Terkel. Zane Terkel “appeared on television to complain about the law and to announce that he would not be building more restaurants or hiring any more workers in response to his objections to Obamacare” (Forbes). Meanwhile, Metz proposed a five percent Obamacare fee for each customer, “Customers have two choices: They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server.” Several days after, Metz expressed regret for his out-of-line proposal.
Public disapproval is measured by YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which asked respondents in this case, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” Results were filtered to adults 18 and older who had eaten at casual dining restaurants in the past month.
Over the course of two weeks after their public statements, the Buzz scores declined drastically for all three franchises. Papa John’s 32 dropped to a four, Applebees’ 35 fell to five, and Denny’s fell from 10 to 0 but soon jumped back up to six after an apology from Metz.
