Domino's Pizza employee's digusting video

Deb in IA

Knows that KIDS are better
Joined
Aug 18, 1999
Messages
12,607
Apparently, the video has been causing a ruckus on YouTube and Twitter.

Here's the story:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7355967&page=1

Domino's Employee Video Taints Food and Brand

Domino's Pizza Responds to PR Nightmare When Gross Video of Employees Goes Viral
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
April 16, 2009

When videos of employees violating a host of public health laws hit the Internet and went viral, Domino's Pizza knew it was facing a public relations crisis capable of damaging its well-known and well-regarded brand in a matter of days.

Two fast food employees are fired after doing disgusting things in the kitchen.Through Twitter, blogs and YouTube, the videos had been viewed by millions of people, highlighting the power of social media to tarnish a 50-year-old brand virtually overnight.

Domino's was the latest company to be on the wrong end of a "Twitter storm," a spontaneously formed digital mob that rapidly shares information. The company's swift response to the employees and its wider customer base, using the same Web sites and media that spread the video, has been praised by observers who nevertheless wonder if the company can emerge unscathed.

Shot by one employee, the video depicted another worker in the kitchen of a Conover, N.C. franchise putting cheese in his nose, blowing mucous on a sandwich and a putting a sponge he would use to wash dishes between his buttocks.

"This is Michael's special Italian sandwich," said Michael Setzer, 32, on the video, before taking a piece of mozzarella cheese from his nose and putting it on a sandwich.


Setzer and his colleague Kristy Hammonds, 31, who shot the video and posted it online, both were arrested and charged with food tampering, a felony in North Carolina. The store at which they worked was shut down to be restaffed and disinfected, according to a company spokesman.

Calls made to Setzer and Hammonds by ABCNews.com were not returned.

The digital mob played a role in alerting the company to the errant employees and tracking down their identities. Readers of the consumer affairs blog consumerist.com, which posted the video early in the week, tracked Hammonds down through her YouTube account and identified the store from matching an exterior shot in a video with an image on Google maps.

"With customers' help, we were able to find the store identify the people involved," said Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre. "By Tuesday, we had contacted the franchise owner, given him the info we had and told him to take quick and decisive action."

McIntyre said he first learned of the video from people who found it online and called or e-mailed him or the company.


Part of Domino's approach to handling the outcry of disgusted patrons was for McIntyre to directly respond to individuals, targeting bloggers who spread the video and whom he hoped would disseminate the company's response.

Rather than issue a formal press release to the mainstream press, which McIntyre feared would only encourage more people to find and view the video, he targeted the online audience that had expressed an interest.

"I'm savvy enough to know that if I'm contacted by a blogger, whatever I say is going to get posted," McIntyre said. "Even if I think I'm responding to an individual, I'm potentially talking to millions."

When the company received an e-mail from Hammonds apologizing for the prank and claiming the tainted food was never delivered, Domino's "copied e-mail verbatim and shared it with everyone," McIntyre said.

The company then posted a video response on YouTube by company president Patrick Doyle, in the hopes that the same Twitter members and bloggers who spread the video would spread the corporate reaction and apology.

"We sincerely apologize for this incident," said Doyle. "We thank members of the online community who quickly alerted us and allowed us to take immediate action."


McIntyre said the company made an effort not to hide anything, and despite a rapid response that addressed the public's concern, the company could have responded even faster.

"If there is a lesson here," he said, "it is to move faster than we did."

Companies are quickly realizing that social networks give customers an outlet to air grievances and stage a protest in a matter of hours, said Joseph Jaffe, president and chief interrupter of Crayon, a new media consulting company.

Earlier this week, Amazon.com issued a dry boilerplate press release in response to thousands of angry customers who found each other on Twitter and complained that the bookseller had removed gay-themed titles from best-seller lists.

In November, mothers enraged by a Motrin ad that suggested carrying babies in a sling was a painful trend created enough public outrage online to get the company to pull the ad.

Similarly, redesigned Tropicana containers were pulled from the shelves after an angry Twitter storm struck the company and forced a reversal.

The Internet has changed the public relations landscape for companies. It seems they no longer can ignore customers and hope problems disappear.

"The original [Domino's] video has [been] removed from YouTube and yet still out there," Jaffe said. "It has been duplicated, cloned, ripped and rebroadcast. This is the first time companies are learning that once something is out there, it's out there. No one is quick enough to destroy them or pull them down, so you have responded intelligently."


Jaffe lauded Domino's for its response but said the company made two mistakes.

For one, the company should have "blasted a press release" rather than targeted blogs.

Secondly, he said, Domino's and other companies have to be better at listening to the Internet. Corporations, he said, should monitor what is being said about them and actively engage those people to positively change what people think about them.
 
That is unbelievable! I wonder if the food really WAS delivered, and they are just saying it wasn't to save their butts!
 
I didn't watch since the description was more than enough imho- but I am hoping beyond hope that they never delivered it.

Oh man now it makes me feel better that we are not doing take out.

And I was a waitress years ago in a Tavern/restaurant kind of place. The 2 chefs used to scare us by putting the Lobsters on the floor as we pushed into the room! Or they would pretend they were escaping from the back door. We found those poor lobsters all over the place and yes they ended up on someone's plate for $29.99!
 
EEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

That Domino's is just around the corner from my Mom and Dad's house. They love the new toasted sandwiches....and probably have them once a week.

I just called them to let them know and the assured me that they have not ordered from them in a few days and would not be ordering food from that location ANY more!!!!

Linda
 

I bet we would all be horrified if we knew what went on behind closed doors in restaurants and fast food chains....:scared:
 
That's disgusting! And not even kids doing it..they are both in their 30's!! Time to grow up people!
 
This entire video is definitely still online-- this is so sick and makes you question those that handle your food before it gets to you!
 
It's been all over the news here. So we got to see it in all it's "glory".... :scared:

Makes the rest of us who work fast food look bad when idiots pull crap like this. :mad:
 
I saw this on the Today Show this morning. It was unbelievable!! Absolutely unbelievable. I know disgusting stuff happens but really, taping yourself, narrating it and putting it on youtube? The whole thing makes me sick.
 
I saw this on the Today Show this morning. It was unbelievable!! Absolutely unbelievable. I know disgusting stuff happens but really, taping yourself, narrating it and putting it on youtube? The whole thing makes me sick.


Well, now we know why they were in their 30s and still working at Domino's.;)
 
That's disgusting! And not even kids doing it..they are both in their 30's!! Time to grow up people!

I won't watch the video, but from the article alone, that was the first thing that I thought of too. These are adults doing these things. I could almost understand if they were two 16 year olds (not that that would be okay either) that were bored at work. These are adults that thought these antics would make them an internet hit. It's beyond disturbing :mad:
 
Oh wow - no words for the level of stupid it took to do this. Like they'll EVER find work again in this economy :sad2: (once they get out of prison...).


Waiter, can we get some chlorine in the gene pool over here?
 
EEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

That Domino's is just around the corner from my Mom and Dad's house. They love the new toasted sandwiches....and probably have them once a week.

I just called them to let them know and the assured me that they have not ordered from them in a few days and would not be ordering food from that location ANY more!!!!

Linda

I understand why they feel that way. But those people don't work there anymore. And if people don't go back to that store, that franchise owner will have to go out of business--and he or she had nothing to do with this. Like I said, I understand, but I think I'd order from them anyway, just to support them.
 
Those employees should be made to pay resitution to the franchise owner, he is the real victim in all of this. It would not surprised me if he ends up having to close up shop. I feel very bad for him and for Dominos. It's not their fault that two men they thought were competent employees turned out to be numbskulls. They took care of it instead of sweeping it under the rug, but there will still be people who will never order from them again because they don't realize that this was an isolated incident from two stupid individuals that will most likely not occur again.

I have worked in three different restaurants and a grocery store kitchen. In every place I worked the workers were diligent about food safety. I never saw any antics that are even close to this. Most of them were people who were happy to have a job and took pride in doing their best at it. It's people like this who give us all a bad name.
 
EEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

That Domino's is just around the corner from my Mom and Dad's house. They love the new toasted sandwiches....and probably have them once a week.

I just called them to let them know and the assured me that they have not ordered from them in a few days and would not be ordering food from that location ANY more!!!!

Linda

I suspect that might be the single safest location in the country right now.
 
This may sound dramatic but I will never order from Dominos ever again.
 
I won't watch the video, but from the article alone, that was the first thing that I thought of too. These are adults doing these things. I could almost understand if they were two 16 year olds (not that that would be okay either) that were bored at work. These are adults that thought these antics would make them an internet hit. It's beyond disturbing :mad:

And not only did they lose their jobs but might have criminal charges against them.
 
I understand why they feel that way. But those people don't work there anymore. And if people don't go back to that store, that franchise owner will have to go out of business--and he or she had nothing to do with this. Like I said, I understand, but I think I'd order from them anyway, just to support them.

You make a VERY good point.

Linda
 















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