If you’re not a fan of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)— also known as “Obamacare”— you can now show your opposition to it by buying a Papa John’s Pizza.
A Facebook group calling itself “Rebooting America” has created an event on the social network declaring Friday, Nov. 16 “National Papa John’s Appreciation Day.”
The event was inspired by company founder and current CEO John H. Schnatter, who previously stated that he would cut employee hours because of the legislation.
“Schnatter has received intense media scrutiny in addition to being demonized as an evil rich guy by the Left,” the event description reads.
In support of Schnatter, the group is asking conservatives and anyone against the ACA to change their Facebook profile picture to the company’s logo on Nov. 16, and then go to their nearest Papa John’s location to purchase a pizza.
Rebooting America is also asking that those who end up patronizing Papa John’s on Nov. 16 “purchase an additional pie to share with someone that is struggling right now.” That could be anyone from a recently unemployed neighbor to a food bank, or anyone who would appreciate a free pizza.
“National Papa John’s Appreciation Day” aims to replicate the success of August’s Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, an event organized on Facebook by former Arkansas Governor and Fox News mainstay Mike Huckabee. The event called for Republicans and conservatives to patronize Chick-Fll-A in early August in support of CEO Dan Cathy and his public statements against marriage equality.
Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day was fairly successful, galvanizing conservatives, gaining the support of known public figures like Sarah Palin, and attracting 673,584 attendees on Facebook.
Papa John’s Appreciation Day has not reached the same level of critical mass that its chicken sandwich counterpart did. As of this writing, 10,334 Facebook users have signing up as “attending.”
Despite the paltry numbers, Justen Charters—member of Rebooting America and actual event creator— remains enthused about his page’s reach.
“We broke 6,000 attendees for National Papa John’s day,” he excitedly noted on his Facebook page on Monday night. “Exceptional job everyone. I can officially say its [sic] a VIRAL EVENT.”
Equally viral is the reaction stirred up on social news site Reddit, where Schnatter and his company have been lambasted for their stance on ACA. Several threads— all with thousands of karma points— have popped up on the site openly mocking Schnatter or advocating a boycott of his company.
Photo via Papa John’s/Facebook
