Boycotts work. John Schnatter, the “John” of Papa John’s, is stepping down, i.e., departing or being pushed out of, the CEO position at his company.
Because of his racist comments about the NFL kneeling protest.
We who watch football games (as well as too much TV) are fully knowledgeable about Schnatter’s TV commercials (proclaiming Papa John’s as the pizza of the NFL, whatever the hell that means), which he makes with Peyton Manning.
All you need to know about what Schnatter said is in this excerpt:
[Schnatter’s] comments about the N.F.L. protests won the praise of white supremacists, and Papa John’s responded by saying it did not want white supremacists or their groups buying its pizzas.
Well, I’m sure that persuaded white supremacists to stay away from Papa John’s, oh yeah.
And all you need to know about the effect of boycotts is in this excerpt:
Under Mr. Schnatter, Papa John’s became one of the top pizza chains in the United States, but its stock price has tumbled in the past year, falling by nearly one-third to $59.23 per share, as of Thursday.
Whenever I see one of those ads, I say directly to the TV, “Shame on you, Peyton, for doing this and NFL: drop this guy and his pizza splat.” And my TV says right back at me, “You go, girl!” So I say, keep up the boycott! Let’s see how far down we can drive Papa John’s stock price.
But this article does not refer to Schnatter’s snide and coded racist comments about Barack Obama and the ACA. Nor does it refer to his membership in the Koch Bros Neu Wannsee Conference, their Final Solution to Democracy. Or that he doesn’t pay his (New York City) workers and lost a lawsuit.
Too bad. So let me remedy their neglect above, with those links.
And I must point out that among the Koch cabal Schnatter was particularly vulnerable to a boycott of his product. Most of the other Kochists are magnates of hedge funds or heads of primarily private companies — such as the Kochs fossil fuel-related businesses — and are, thus, armored against boycotts.
Although let me remind everybody not to buy Quilted Northern toilet paper, along with not buying Papa John’s pizza.