Papa John's pulls NFL ads

"Papa" John Schnatter (center). AP.

Pizza company Papa Johns has pulled it's advertising from the NFL citing the negative impact of National Anthem protest. Bleacher Report. The company claimed that sales were down due to "negative consumer sentiment" and criticized the leadership of the NFL. The anthem protests have been hugely unpopular and have been partially responsible for a 7.5% loss of viewership this year compared to last season. This matches the loss of sales at Papa Johns, which has lost 6% of their business. 

My Comment:

A smart move for Papa Johns. I don't see how they lose by doing this. Sure, a few liberals will be upset but John Schnatter's politics are well known and most people that would hate him for pulling ads already hate him for supporting President Trump. I don't see them losing too many customers from this. 

This is also free advertising for Papa Johns. Not only do they no longer have to pay for NFL ads that aren't as effective as they once were due to falling ratings, they will get quite a bit of attention for doing this. Papa Johns has been trending on Twitter for most of the day and dozens of articles drawing attention to it. That is a lot of potential sales and likely more than what the NFL ads would have brought in, even during good times. 

I think that this could also relieve some pressure from their customers. I know some people on the right were attempting a boycott on NFL sponsors over the kneeling issue, but I don't know how organized those boycotts were. The traditional right is horrible at organizing but the younger generations are much better at it, so they might have come under pressure. That pressure will now be relieved after they spoke out and pulled their ads. 

There is also the point that Papa Johns can use this as a scapegoat for their own problems. It probably can't be proven that the anthem protests alone were enough to cause a 6% dip in sales, but blaming it on the NFL will keep the stockholders happy. Whatever other problems Papa John's has, and I am sure they have some, they won't be discussed now. 

The NFL protests have faded into the background a bit, but they are still going on. People are still very angry about it. I know that I haven't watched a single game since I realized that a boycott could work. The most I did was listen to about 5 minutes of a game because my coworker wanted to know the score, and I only did that because I didn't want to bring politics into work. Other than that I haven't watched any games and only pay attention to the NFL for the sake of my fantasy football teams. Many other people have gone even further than that.  

I think having a major sponsor drop out is going to put incredible pressure on the NFL. There is a real possibility of other companies pulling out. And counter movement is going to be encouraged to continue protests and the boycott. In short, this situation has the potential to spiral out of control. Considering that the NFL is already in dire straits, it has the potential to force action against these protesters. 

I understand that Rodger Goodall is in a difficult position. No matter what he does he will anger someone. If he stops the protests, he will anger his players and left wing activists, but if he doesn't he is going to lose the few right wing fans he has left and will likely lose more advertisers. My guess is that he isn't going to come up with a solution that doesn't damage the NFL and he is going to be the scapegoat. 

Of course this whole situation was completely avoidable. If Goodall had just cracked down on Colin Kaepernick and suspended him the first time he protested, the whole situation would have lasted a week. Instead it has dragged out for two seasons and cost the NFL millions of dollars and almost all of their goodwill with people on the right and the current president. I think schools in the future will teach business students about this as a classic case of horrible PR.