"Papa John" Schnatter is under fire after saying that the Holocaust was a good
thing. Okay, he didn't really say that, but you kind of believe me for a second,
didn't you? You're watching What's Trending, I'm Jonathan Harris. Make sure to
subscribe for more trending and social media stories daily. John Schnatter the
former CEO of Papa John's, and face of the franchise has been through a
mountain of trouble lately seemingly putting his foot in his mouth again and
again. We wanted to track the trajectory of America's second most embarrassing
pizza CEO, and try to find out what the hell happened to him. Now, the beginning
of Schnatter's career is very impressive. He is in fact the original Papa, founding
the company in 1984 when he operated out of a broom closet in his father's bar in
Jeffersonville Indiana. Over the next 30 years, he turned Papa John's into the
third largest pizza takeout and delivery chain in the world, with annual sales of
3.7 billion and he became personally famous as well, appearing in his own
commercials with Peyton Manning during NFL games. Manning's been a long-term
spokesperson and brand ambassador for Papa John's, and Schneider even ran up to
Manning and kissed him on the cheek after he won his final Super Bowl. Even
when Papa used to get bad press it was still kind of as a lovable goofball, like
in 2013 when this photo of Papa drunk off his ass went viral after the
Louisville Cardinals won the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The headlines were
very positive, "here's a wonderful photo of a shit-faced Papa John", and "this photo
of a super drunk Papa John is the greatest," but over the past few years
some cracks have appeared in Papa's fun dad persona. He was critical of Obamacare,
arguing that if the company was required to provide health insurance for all of
its full-time employees, the company would have to raise prices an average of
14-cents per pizza. And analyses of that figure showed it probably wasn't true.
Video: "The great bulk of Papa John's operations are through franchise operators, not the
parent company, and many of them would be too small to be penalized. Remember, those
exemptions for businesses with fewer than 50 workers, that would happen to
many of the franchises." And then Papa really stepped it up a notch in 2017. He
criticized the NFL's handling of the social justice protests held by players
before football games, Blaming them for declining sales. He said
"This should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago and good or bad
leadership starts at the top and this is an example of poor leadership." Even worse
than the comments themselves was who praised them, the white supremacists
daily stormer website loved it, publishing this photo of a pizza with a
swastika drawn out in pepperoni, and they called Papa John's the official pizza of
the alt-right. jeezee. In a statement a few weeks later, the company tried to walk back
Papa's comments. They wrote "We believe in the right to protest inequality and
support the players movement to create a new platform for change. We also believe
as Americans we should honor our anthem, there is a way to do both." Then in
December, Papa announced he was stepping down as CEO, though as the company's
largest single shareholder, he would remain as chairman of the board. The
controversy continued however, so much so that Papa Johns' relinquishing its
role as official pizza of the NFL, and Peyton Manning sold all 31 of his Papa
John's franchises, though he pledged to remain a brand ambassador. That brings us
to the most recent kerfuffle when on July 11th, Papa reportedly used the
n-word during a conference call. According to Forbes, the call was
arranged between Papa John's executives and marketing agency laundry service as
a role-playing exercise for Papa to prevent future public relations snafus. Jeeze.
But apparently, he defended himself against criticism by saying "Colonel
Sanders called blacks the n-word and yet he didn't face the same backlash." He
didn't say "the n-word," he said the n-word on the phone with a bunch of people he'd
never met. He also referred to his youth in Indiana where people used to drag
African Americans from trucks until they died. These comments did not sit well
with laundry service which terminated its contract with Papa John's shortly
thereafter. In the wake of that controversy, the board asked him to step
down as chairman, which he did but he's now saying that he regrets that decision.
He said "The board asked me to step down as chairman without apparently doing any
investigation. I agreed. Though today I believe it was a mistake to do so. I will
not allow either my good name, or the good name of the company I founded, and
love to be unfairly tainted." In an interview with WLKY in Louisville, Papa
said he was goaded into using the word. Papa John: "I was just repeating with somebody else said. I
was actually kind of provoked a little bit to use not to use that word but to
not use, not use that word, and at the end the day it hurt my employees, it hurt my
community, hurt my franchisees and I just feel horrible about that."
He also says that the agency attempted to blackmail Papa John's asking them for
six million dollars to not reveal the language he used. But the company isn't
having the latest apology. Papa John is not only out of company leadership, he's
also been evicted from his office space at their Louisville headquarters. The new
CEO of Papa John's Steve Ritchie wrote in a letter that all imagery of John
Schnatter will be removed from company branding and they're committed to
promoting a positive company culture free of racism. But, don't feel too bad
for Papa John, he's worth an estimated 720 million dollars, and the 11 percent
bump the company's stock saw after he resigned increased his own net worth by
about 50 million. He also lives on a 15 acre villa in Louisville worth 11
million dollars, and owns the fastest civilian business jet in the world. Ok, so,
what happened to Papa John? Seems like he's a guy who's been too rich for too
long, and failed to fully understand the motivations of the people who helped
make him as rich as he is. Also, his pizza kind of sucks. What do you guys think?
Will you have Papa John's in the future? Let us know in the comments below. Be
sure to subscribe, and for more stories like this, head over to What'sTrending.com