Last week, Papa John’s founder John Schnatter said his company was pulling some advertising from NFL games because player protests were making it harder to sell pizza. It later emerged that Papa John’s was simply removing the NFL’s logo from some of its marketing, not withdrawing television ads. Schnatter’s outrage was essentially one part action, two parts bluster.
Based on comments from NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino in a chat moderated by AdAge on Friday, it sounds like Papa John’s isn’t alone in that approach. Yaccarino, NBCU’s chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships, said no advertisers have pulled their spots but several have threatened to. Via AdAge:
Yaccarino … said that none of NBCUniversal’s NFL advertisers have pulled out of NBC’s Sunday Night Football or Thursday Night Football games. However, a “list of advertisers have made themselves very clear: if you continue covering the political coverage of the issue, we will not be part of the NFL,” she said. “Because think about it: they have half the country that is cheering about that, and they have half the country that is emailing them, saying, don’t do that. So that’s a real thing.”
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