DiGiorno Mocks Papa John's Over Anthem Whining

(RTTNews) - Frozen pizza brand DiGiorno mocked Papa John's in Twitter after the pizza chain's founder and CEO John Schnatter blamed athletes' national anthem protests for weak sales.

Schnatter recently blamed his company's poor results on National Football League or NFL players kneeling during the American national anthem to protest police brutality. He also slammed NFL leadership for not taking action. Papa John's is said to be reconsidering its NFL sponsorship amid declining television ratings for the sport.

In a tweet, DiGiorno, a unit of Nestle, first responded through emojis to indicate that their sales didn't experience negative effects.

They also changed their Twitter bio briefly to read, "Better Pizza. Better Sales. It's DiGiorno," in comparison to Papa John's slogan of "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa John's."

In response, Papa John's eventually changed their Twitter bio to "Frozen pizza = the equivalent of a participation trophy,", which was later changed to "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Better Tweets".

As of now, both companies look like to have toned down their Twitter bio.

Other pizza companies are also entering the feud. According to Business Insider, Greg Creed, the CEO of Pizza Hut's parent company Yum! Brands, stated that the chain was "not seeing impact on any of that on our business."

Since the beginning of the 2017 season, the NFL protests have sparked a national political debate. Many celebrities stood in solidarity with the players kneeling during the anthem, while some, including President Donald Trump, call the movement unpatriotic.