On Thursday, there might be loads and loads of pizza served for supper in Cleveland. It is a form of apology to the citizens of Cleveland for insulting one of the local professional basketball stars, LeBron James. The pizza chain, Papa John’s Pizza, had t-shirts made that said LeBron James was a “crybaby” when he expressed himself about how the Cleveland / Washington playoff series was being played:

“…To apologize, Papa John’s will sell Cleveland residents a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents on Thursday. The 23 is an homage to James’ jersey number. The company also will donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.”

link: Papa John’s to offer Cleveland residents 23-cent pizzas

There are various versions about how this incident took place. Was it a corporate gaffe or was it shrewd corporate marketing? In any case, the Papa John’s franchise is receiving enormous free publicity and Cleveland has a bargain pizza day on Thursday. So, on Thursday in Cleveland, the NBA is… where pizza happens.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: nba, t-shirt, lebron james, cleveland, pizza, papa john’s pizza, marketing