About
Papa John’s is the third largest take-out and pizza delivery fast food restaurant chain in the United States. With more than 4,700 locations around the world, the restaurant has also been attached to a number of political controversies, surrounding company policy and founder John Schnatter’s public comments.
History
On October 2nd, 1984, John Schnatter founded the first Papa John’s Pizza by selling pizza out of a converted broom closet at Schnatter’s father’s tavern, Mick’s Lounge, in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Schnatter infamously sold his 1971 Camaro Z28 for $1,600 to purchase the materials to start the company. In 2009, he found the long-lost camaro and purchased the car back for $250,000.
In 2001, Papa John’s became the first pizza chain to offer national online ordering. Six years later, it became the first chain to offer SMS text message ordering.
In September 2012, the company opened its 4,000th location and celebrated by giving away 4,000 pizza throughout New York City.
2012 Papa John’s Boycott
Papa John’s Boycott refers to an online campaign against the take-out and pizza delivery restaurant chain Papa John’s Pizza. The boycott was launched in November of 2012 in response to statements by Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter regarding the health care reform legislation known as Patient Protection and Afforable Care Act (also known as Obamacare).
2017 #TakeAKnee Controversy
On November 1st, 2017, Schnatter claimed that controversy surrounding the National Anthem hurt sales, which were down from the previous year.“The NFL has hurt us,” he said. “We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this.” The pizza company is the official one of the NFL and has a deal with the league and 23 teams. However, they claim to have taken some NFL-related advertising off the air.
“We expect it to persist unless a solution is put in place,” said Papa John’s President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie.
The following day, Pizza Hut, who has no affiliation with he NFL, reported a 1% sales growth in the past year. Yum Brands CEO, the owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, commented, "We’re not seeing any impact from any of that.
Online, people interpretted Creed’s comment as “throwing shade” or insulting Papa John’s (examples below). That day, Twitter published a Moments page regarding the comments.
Later that day, the frozen pizza company DiGorno Pizza also posted a series of tweets that were seemingly aimed at Papa John’s. The first tweet (shown below, left) read, “Us: 🍕📈 / Them: 🍕📉” and received more than 15,000 retweets and 53,000 likes in 24 hours. DiGorno replied to this tweet with a parody of Papa John’s slogan that read, “Better Pizza. Better Sales.” The tweet (shown below, center) received more than 8,000 retweets and 25,000 likes in 24 hours. Finally, DiGorno tweeted,“Update: 📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉📉” The final tweet (shown below, right) received more than 2,600 retweets and 11,000 likes in 24 hours.
That day, Twitter published another Moments page about DiGorno Pizza’s tweets, receiving more than 1,400 likes in 24 hours.
Reception
Papa John’s is the third largest fast food pizza delivery and take out restaurant chain in the world. As of January 2016, the company has been valued at $2.2 billion. By January 2017, Papa John’s reached a record market cap of 3.2 billion before settling back down to the early 2016 price range.
Fandom
On November 6th, 2008, Papa John’s launched the official Facebook page. The social media account currently has more than 5.5 million likes and 5.3 million followers as of November 2017.
The following month, on December 29th, 2008, Papa John’s launched the official @PapaJohns Twitter account. As of November 2017, the account has more than 545,000 followers.
On February 21st, 2012, Redditor SchmittBag started the /r/Papajohns subreddit. Within five and a half years, the subreddit has garnered more than 595 subscribers. On October 24th, 2017, Redditor fluffykins posted a picture of a man with a Papa John’s tattoo under the thread “First Tattoo.”
Popularity in White Supremacist and Alt-Right Communities
Following Papa John’s decision to scale back advertising on the NFL as a result of the #TakeAKnee controversy, the neo-Nazi and white supremacist website The Daily Stormer posted a picture of a pizza with a swaztika made of pepperoni on November 2nd, 2017. The picture was captioned “Papa John: Official pizza of the alt-right?”
Papa John’s released a statement to the Huffington Post. The company said in a statement:
“We condemn racism in all forms and any and all hate groups that support it. We do not want these individuals or groups to buy our pizza.”
That weekend, alt-right Twitter personality Jack Posobiec continued the association between Papa John’s and the alt-right by serving the pizza at his wedding rehearsal dinner. He tweeted a picture of Papa John’s pizza with the caption “Rehearsal dinner with Papa Johns!” The tweet (shown below) received more than420 retweets and 2,600 likes.
Online, people mocked Posobiec for having fast-food pizza at his wedding rehearsal dinner as a means of “owning libs.”
Related Memes
H3H3’s Papa Bless
“Papa Bless” is a catchphrase associated with Ethan Klein of H3H3Productions and reference to American pizza company, “Papa John’s”. It is often jokingly used to express gratitude to CEO John Schnatter and showing appreciation of kindness.
Search Interest
External References