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Thursday, July 19, 2018

Papa John's founder John Schnatter blames n-word scandal on 'extortion' attempt

Papa John’s founder John Schnatter is punching back.

The pizza mogul who was accused of using a racial slur during an internal conference call in May is claiming the marketing firm that set up the call tried to extort $6 million from the chain to keep quiet about the slur.

“They wanted $6 million to make it go away,” Schnatter told a Louisville, Ky., CBS affiliate about Laundry Service, the Los Angeles-based marketing firm since fired by Papa John’s.

“‘If I don’t get my f–king money, I’m going to bury the founder,’ said one of the executives,” Schnatter told WLKY. “I’m not for sale,” Schnatter continued. “We held firm and they ran to Forbes, which printed it.”

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a really easy way to avoid this situation...dont use the n word. Did you get that ES?

Anonymous said...

Papa John's will go silently into the sunset, just like the original Shakey's Pizza of yester-year!

Watch as Pizza Hut continues their quiet comeback!
Could also be in opp for Domino's to bring back the NOID!!!!!

1 DAY TIL TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Only if your White!! I guess they forgot what his race was.

Anonymous said...

He was repeating what another company had said and condemned the other company for saying it. You can't be fired for that?? It's ridiculous and scary.

Anonymous said...

Pure lies and deception from the left again.

Anonymous said...


From what I've read, he has a habit of speaking directly. Not unusual for someone who built a business from the ground up.

It got him in trouble when he said the NFL's handling of protests had spilled over into lower than forecast pizza sales. The win-win sponsorship deal evaporated.

In this instance, he apparently made reference to what several other business leaders had previously said that is public knowledge but water long over the dam except for grievance nursers. It's unclear if he actually said the word or just made reference to it. (Didn't click More). His Board of Directors didn't bother to gather facts or context and he was jettisoned.

Now comes his contention that one of his vendors attempted to blackmail him about the discussion, which they were party to, in order to keep the advertising account with the pizza company. If that is the case I'd be suing the ad company for every nickel they have or ever hope to have. And I hope law enforcement gets involved since their extortion crossed state lines.

Punch back twice as hard, Papa John!