Domino’s Meets YouTube, and The Result Isn’t Pretty

It used to be that the damage a couple of stupid restaurant employees could do was limited by geography: only folks in store’s local area would ever find out.

The rise of YouTube and its bretheren means that any idiot with a camcorder and an internet connection can now broadcast to the entire world — and undo the positive results of years of good marketing.

This week’s example: Domino’s Pizza. Recently two North Carolina Domino’s employees filmed themselves doing something very bad to a pizza.

In videos posted on YouTube and elsewhere this week, a Domino’s employee in Conover, N.C., prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose, nasal mucus on the sandwiches, and violating other health-code standards while a fellow employee provided narration.

The two were charged with delivering prohibited foods.

By Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. References to it were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for “Dominos,” and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter.

The damage to the Domino’s brand was swift, and significant.

The perception of its quality among consumers went from positive to negative since Monday, according to the research firm YouGov, which holds online surveys of about 1,000 consumers every day regarding hundreds of brands.

If you thought that you didn’t have to talk to your staff about how their social media activities can affect your company’s reputation — around the block and around the world — read the full story, gather your employees, and discuss.

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