From The Editor's Office

A masterful turnaround through marketing

Someone in marketing with the Papa John's Pizza company deserves a raise after the stunning turn of events that culminated Thursday. Papa John's got into an uncomfortable situation recently when someone at a franchise in Washington D.C. decided it would be cute to call Cleveland Cavaliers player LeBron James a crybaby, and made a T-shirt with that written on it. The problem was, they also included the Papa John's logo. To say the least, that turned out to be a public relations nightmare. This is where the clever turnaround occurred. Someone was smart enough to offer an apology in Northeast Ohio and offered 23-cent pizzas, the 23 being James' jersey number. The turnout was tremendous. The result was the pizza company ended up with front-page coverage of the events. The Tribune covered it, but we put it on the business page. The company may have lost some money on dough and toppings -- it obviously costs more than 23 cents to make a pizza -- but the name recognition and branding it got was priceless. It couldnát get much better than that. It was the equivalent of a good-sized ad prominently displayed. The only thing the coverage lacked was the phone number, hours of operation and a grinning employee's face representing the company. But the splash was effective. This is a classic example of thinking people being able to turn an onion into an orchid.