OK, we’ve all seen the video of the Domino’s employee doing gross things to ingredients of a sandwich he’s making. And we all cringe a little, or a lot, thinking how it could have been OUR sandwich. And we probably all made a mental note not to eat a Dominos product for a while, at least until the emotional statute of limitations is lifted.
But how long is that? A week? A month? And how much damage is done to the Domino’s brand in that ensuing time period? It’s hard to measure, but it will total in the millions of dollars.
All because of the power of viral videos, and YouTube in particular. What’s a brand to do these days to protect itself? Now, any whack job with a camera phone can cripple your business with a bad intention and a couple of button clicks. The poor franchise owner in North Carolina had to close his restaurant in the wake of the PR destruction.
Domino’s did the right thing by posting a response from Patrick Doyle, the president of the Domino’s USA, pledging to uphold the standard of quality that his restaurants were built on. Which does little to assuage the fears of the pizza-eating public. Domino’s has the right to prosecute the offenders, both criminally as a violation of sanitation codes, and in a civil suit to address issues relating to the tarnishing of the brand. But they might do better by letting this topic disappear from the public radar as quickly as possible. Out of sight, out of mind. And out of mind is exactly where Domino’s needs this debacle to be.
Besides, haven’t we always known that, behind the scenes in restaurants all over the country, unseen things are happening to the foods we eat, especially in fast food establishments where the average employee is still in high school? We take this as fact. We even joke about not irritating the waiter unless you want spit in your entrée.
I guess, even if we think it’s going on, nobody wants to see it on YouTube.