The infamous YouTube video shot by two Domino’s staffers cut the chain’s comp sales for the first quarter by 1 to 2%, CEO David Brandon explained during the pizza company’s conference call yesterday with analysts. However, the chain was able to collect $2 million from a business-interruption insurance policy, he added.
The clip showed an employee of a franchised unit in North Carolina fouling the ingredients of a sandwich. After being posted on the internet, the spot became a viral hit, spreading quickly and apparently scaring Domino's patrons.
The chain initially waited for the brouhaha to blow over, then realized its mistake and jumped into action. It filmed its own YouTube video, featuring company president Patrick Doyle blasting the two knuckleheads and apologizing for the food-safety lapse. He assured consumers that such shenanigans are not tolerated by the brand.
Brandon noted yesterday that the culprit and his colleague, the woman who held the camera, are being prosecuted.
“If the stupid incident down in North Carolina wouldn't have happened, we'd be here reporting significant traffic uptick,” he told the analysts.
Brandon was asked if the damage might've been more severe than a $2-million drop-off in business. Brandon indicated that the chain wanted to move quickly and put the incident behind it, so apparently didn't dicker over the settlement.
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
McD's own private Domino's
By now, even people with analog television service are likely aware of the shenanigans two Domino's employees pulled last week, tarnishing the image of the the chain (and some say all of foodservice). Now it looks as if McDonald's may have to do some damage control because of a YouTube posting.
The video shows a garbage-strewn interior of a McD's unit in Australia. The camera scans a dining area that's ankle-deep in trash, then pans to a counter where customers are nonetheless still being served. The postings on YouTube (they were still there as of this morning) carry headlines along the lines of, "The Worst McDonald's."
Although the clip was filmed in Australia, it's reportedly getting big play in the United States because it was picked up by The Drudge Report, the popular muckraking (some say scandal-mongering) website.
But it's hardly the only posting on YouTube that casts a fast-food brand in an unfavorable light. Search around enough and you can probably find some bashing of virtually all the quick-service giants.
Two days ago, in the course of reporting unrelated stories, I spoke with a quick-service exec who brought up the Domino's situation. He wondered aloud if chains will now have to come up with a social media code of conduct for their employees. He didn't have to explain how thorny that would be.
But he's undoubtedly correct that the industry has to do something to address the situation. As the New York Times reported yesterday, Domino's initially figured the controversy would fade away if headquarters just ignored the original post and the early fallout. Big mistake.
I wrote to an industry association yesterday, suggesting it take the lead in airing the issue and encouraging chains to hammer out a list of best practices for addressing the situation. I have yet to get a response, which makes me think I may have to peddle the notion elsewhere.
Somehow, someway, the industry has to pool its brainpower to deal with the issue. In the meantime, the doorknob-headed perpetrators are going to continue to act, since they already have their own associations. They're called YouTube and Twitter.
The video shows a garbage-strewn interior of a McD's unit in Australia. The camera scans a dining area that's ankle-deep in trash, then pans to a counter where customers are nonetheless still being served. The postings on YouTube (they were still there as of this morning) carry headlines along the lines of, "The Worst McDonald's."
Although the clip was filmed in Australia, it's reportedly getting big play in the United States because it was picked up by The Drudge Report, the popular muckraking (some say scandal-mongering) website.
But it's hardly the only posting on YouTube that casts a fast-food brand in an unfavorable light. Search around enough and you can probably find some bashing of virtually all the quick-service giants.
Two days ago, in the course of reporting unrelated stories, I spoke with a quick-service exec who brought up the Domino's situation. He wondered aloud if chains will now have to come up with a social media code of conduct for their employees. He didn't have to explain how thorny that would be.
But he's undoubtedly correct that the industry has to do something to address the situation. As the New York Times reported yesterday, Domino's initially figured the controversy would fade away if headquarters just ignored the original post and the early fallout. Big mistake.
I wrote to an industry association yesterday, suggesting it take the lead in airing the issue and encouraging chains to hammer out a list of best practices for addressing the situation. I have yet to get a response, which makes me think I may have to peddle the notion elsewhere.
Somehow, someway, the industry has to pool its brainpower to deal with the issue. In the meantime, the doorknob-headed perpetrators are going to continue to act, since they already have their own associations. They're called YouTube and Twitter.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
May the Noid befoul them
The disguise shouldn’t affect my typing, though the fur is starting to itch. I had to go incognito the instant I heard about the Domino’s video, and a Chewbacca get-up from the Halloween of ’84 was the only dodge I could find. It was no picnic, people. Twenty-five years will definitely shrink a hair-covered jumpsuit.
But losing circulation is preferable to hearing my knuckleheaded friends spout urban myths about the restaurant business, as they’re prone to do after an industry gross-out like the YouTube posting. Who knows how far they’ll stretch after an ewww of that dimension? In case you missed it, a thirtysomething making sandwiches in a North Carolina unit shoves cheese up his nose and waves the cold cuts under his butt for what I’ll politely call a crop-dusting. Then the ingredients go back on sandwiches.
The escapade was caught for posterity by a uniformed co-worker of equal vintage, who regards the prank as the biggest knee-slapper since Jerry Lewis was in his prime. With presumed pride, the clip was posted on YouTube, where the wedgie-loving crowd can detect such things the way a starved spaniel can sniff out a chewy.
And who said our younger generations have lost their way?
But back to my friends, who tend to view such outrageous transgressions as validation of their worst restaurant fears. They haven’t had fodder quite this rich since rats were spotted in a halftime dance routine inside a New York Taco Bell two years ago. Now they’ll be absolutely certain that servers would as soon spit on the food as swallow, that restaurant ice harbors more bacteria than a germ-weapons research center, that listed calorie counts are about a tenth of the actual content, and that valet attendants have a non-stop demolition derby underway a few blocks over.
Never mind that the Domino’s vid stars were instantly fired, criminal complaints were later filed, and the pair ultimately gave themselves up to authorities, who charged them with food-tampering. Here's what Domino's had to say about the situation in its follow-up YouTube post:
Yet people are going to look at the shenanigans of two lowlifes employed by a chain in one North Carolina restaurant as symptomatic behavior, not an aberration. And they’re going to tell me all about it as they tsk-tsk my naivete about what happens on the other side of kitchen doors.
So I’d just as soon hide in my modified ape suit and marvel at how much damage two wing nuts can do to the industry’s reputation with so many enablers waiting on the sidelines.
But losing circulation is preferable to hearing my knuckleheaded friends spout urban myths about the restaurant business, as they’re prone to do after an industry gross-out like the YouTube posting. Who knows how far they’ll stretch after an ewww of that dimension? In case you missed it, a thirtysomething making sandwiches in a North Carolina unit shoves cheese up his nose and waves the cold cuts under his butt for what I’ll politely call a crop-dusting. Then the ingredients go back on sandwiches.
The escapade was caught for posterity by a uniformed co-worker of equal vintage, who regards the prank as the biggest knee-slapper since Jerry Lewis was in his prime. With presumed pride, the clip was posted on YouTube, where the wedgie-loving crowd can detect such things the way a starved spaniel can sniff out a chewy.
And who said our younger generations have lost their way?
But back to my friends, who tend to view such outrageous transgressions as validation of their worst restaurant fears. They haven’t had fodder quite this rich since rats were spotted in a halftime dance routine inside a New York Taco Bell two years ago. Now they’ll be absolutely certain that servers would as soon spit on the food as swallow, that restaurant ice harbors more bacteria than a germ-weapons research center, that listed calorie counts are about a tenth of the actual content, and that valet attendants have a non-stop demolition derby underway a few blocks over.
Never mind that the Domino’s vid stars were instantly fired, criminal complaints were later filed, and the pair ultimately gave themselves up to authorities, who charged them with food-tampering. Here's what Domino's had to say about the situation in its follow-up YouTube post:
Yet people are going to look at the shenanigans of two lowlifes employed by a chain in one North Carolina restaurant as symptomatic behavior, not an aberration. And they’re going to tell me all about it as they tsk-tsk my naivete about what happens on the other side of kitchen doors.
So I’d just as soon hide in my modified ape suit and marvel at how much damage two wing nuts can do to the industry’s reputation with so many enablers waiting on the sidelines.
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