Social Media: Friend or Foe?

by megan ~ April 16, 2009

It feels as though every day we are inundated with information and news about social media and how we should be utilizing its tools.  Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn have become recent phenomenon’s seemingly taking over our lives.  However, as one popular pizza chain and two of its employees quickly learned that as beneficial at social media can be, it just as easily can create a nightmare. Domino’s Pizza learned the pros and cons of social media in a single day this week when social-media users discovered footage of two employees doing an array of unsanitary things to the pizza chain’s new sandwiches on YouTube.

According to this article in Advertising Age, “In a video posted on YouTube last night, two youths identifying themselves as Kristy and Michael besmirch a pair of [Domino’s] sub sandwiches and the pizza chain’s reputation. Michael inserts pieces of cheese into his nose and waves pieces of salami behind his backside. Both the salami and the cheese are placed on the sandwiches. ”

The silly-yet-stomach-turning clips - which also showed the workers sneezing and blowing their noses on meals they were handling - were filmed at a Conover, N.C., Domino’s and posted on YouTube.

Employees characterized the stunt as a prank, and Domino’s said the filthy food was never served.

But a spokeswoman said the company “was not in a forgive-and-forget mood,” the BBC reported.  The pizza delivery giant said it was stunned when the footage surfaced and the pair was promptly terminated.

According to the BBC, the chain has gone a step further, with the affected North Carolina franchise filing a criminal complaint against the ex-employees and police issuing a felony warrant for their arrest.

Another Domino’s spokesman, Tim McIntyre, said that the chain is examining its own legal options, including a possible civil action against the pair for defamation of the brand.  “Any idiot with a webcam and an internet connection can attempt to undo all that’s right about the brand,” he said, adding that Dominos has 125,000 employees in 60 countries and a loyal following. “In the course of one three-minute video, two idiots can attempt to unravel all of that.”

McIntyre went on to say that the chain is looking into what can be done to prevent this in the future, but there’s only so much a marketer can do. “You can be the safest driver, you know,” McIntyre said. “But there’s going to be that Friday night someone’s drunk and comes from out of nowhere. You can do the best you can, but there’s going to be the equivalent of that drunk driver that hits the innocent victim.”

Megan Raphael is an account executive at Mediashop Public Relations.  She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and International Studies at the University of Miami.