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Papa John’s hires Havas Media as agency of recordPapa John’s hires Havas Media as agency of record

Firm specializes in ‘meaningful connections’

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 18, 2018

2 Min Read
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Papa John’s International Inc., has hired Havas Media as its media agency of record, covering media strategy, planning, buying and analytics, a spokesman for the pizza delivery chain confirmed.

According to its website, Havas, which also confirmed the new relationship, specializes in creating “meaningful connections” for brands and its customers, something Papa John’s has been trying to reestablish in the aftermath of negative media attention following comments by John Schnatter, the chain’s founder, former CEO and chairman, who for years was also the face and spokesman of the Louisville, Ky.-based company. 

In November, Schnatter had blamed declining sales, in part, on the National Football League’s failure to suppress its players’ silent protests, resulting in negative media attention, stumbling stock prices and, at the end of the year, Schnatter stepping aside as CEO. Subsequently, Papa John’s was replaced by Pizza Hut as the NFL’s official pizza sponsor. Next, a report by Forbes magazine in July, that Schnatter used inappropriate language in a meeting with its then-marketing agency, Laundry Service, resulted in Schnatter stepping down as chairman of the board, a move he later said he regretted. Laundry Service severed ties with Papa John’s, and Schnatter has been battling with current management, led by his handpicked successor, Steve Ritchie, ever since.

Ritchie and the chain’s board members have since been seeking to distance themselves from Schnatter, removing his image from its website and marketing materials.

In August, Papa John’s hired a new creative agency, Endeavor Global Marketing, which specializes in entertainment, sports and fashion marketing.

In September, the chain with more than 5,000 locations worldwide, launched a marketing campaign called “Voices of Papa John’s,” which features some of its 120,000 employees and emphasizing the diversity of its workforce.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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