LOUISVILLE, Ky. — John Schnatter blamed the NFL for declining pizza sales at Papa John’s in late 2017, comments that led to his resignation as CEO.
But he still kept a prominent role in the company, board chairman, and sought to rehab his image.
Schnatter and Papa John’s worked with a PR firm called Laundry Service in May 2018 when Schnatter made comments during a conference call that ultimately led to his complete departure from the company.
“What bothers me is Colonel Sanders called Blacks n—. I'm like, I've never used that word,” Schnatter said, according to audio released from his lawyer in an ongoing lawsuit against Laundry Service.
Once the words went public in a Forbes article two months later, Schnatter left Papa John's.
Now he claims Laundry Service tried to destroy his reputation.
Schnatter says audio his lawyer released of the call, which he said was recorded without his knowledge by a Laundry Service executive, proves the PR firm was out to get him. Kentucky is a one-party consent state, meaning the firm didn't have to tell Schnatter he was being recorded.
In the transcript he released of the call, he says then-CEO John Stein said, “I hope he gets f— sent out to the pasture on this s—. I really, really f— do.”
Laundry Service has not responded to multiple messages seeking comment.
In a news release, Schnatter said the tapes, “reveal the truth of what really happened.”
"Now the full recording is public, and people have the full picture, everyone can hear for themselves how I was raised to totally reject racism,” Schnatter said. “The American people can hear for themselves that the Laundry Service staff were laughing about setting me up to take a fall.”
Schnatter used the n-word about 50 minutes into the hourlong audio clip.
The audio was mostly a discussion on how to navigate the fallout from his criticism of the NFL and anthem protests.
“I think it’s a really interesting kind of look under the hood at that process that people don’t normally get,” said Bill Shory of Louisville public relations firm Fleur De Lis.
Another founder of Fleur de Lis, Tara Goode, said having conversations with their clients about their goals, especially on sensitive issues, is crucial.
“But as you start to go through that process, agency doesn’t always equal alignment,” Goode said. “So you may discover during that time that there may be something you’re not aligned on philosophically.”
Shory said a PR firm doesn’t have to agree with the client’s viewpoint on a particular stance, but they do have to agree on what they’re trying to accomplish and how to get the messaging across.
During the call, Laundry Service tried to get on the same page with Schnatter about the messaging.
“I would have said it differently so that in a way certainly not to defend anybody that's kneeling, but to not further inflame the situation which I despise, which is the division of the country,” Schnatter said of his comments about the NFL during a conference call in November 2017. “That's how I would say it. Is that going to hurt you guys?”
“I don't think it would hurt, but I do think, if possible, we need to come up with some way to say that I would have acknowledged the reason that people were protesting being an important thing we have in our society,” Stein replied. “Something like that.”
But there appeared to be a disconnect on how to do it.
“We just gave the NFL $40 million a year. We're the No. 1 brand and now all of a sudden, we're dealing with this s—,” Schnatter said on the call.
As Schnatter wraps up his point, a male voice on the call Schnatter claims is Stein said, “This is what happens when a sociopath spirals.”
Shory says the conference call is only a snapshot of the business relationship.
“It’s still only a piece of the picture, of the whole picture, and we don’t know what the conversations were before and after this,” Shory said.
In previous court filings, lawyers for Laundry Service and its parent company, Wasserman Media Group, deny any wrongdoing. The company also specifically denied secretly leaking information about the call to Forbes.
A representative for Schnatter told Spectrum News 1 he may be available for an interview sometime Thursday, but that interview never materialized.