Globally known child arcade Chuck E. Cheese’s is on people’s radar more than ever recently. Famous YouTuber Shane Dawson recently made a conspiracy theory video where Chuck E. Cheese’s was one of the highlights. With over 20 million subscribers, Dawson’s video received nearly 35 million views, and counting, on his latest video titled “Investigating Conspiracy Theories.” The video focused on three conspiracies that Dawson aimed to uncover and further investigate, including Chuck E. Cheese’s and their famous pizza.
The premise of the theory was that the child arcade’s pizza never aligns correctly – some slices are different sizes than others and slice lines do not match up with the other sides. Dawson’s theory is that the business is using leftover pizzas from other customers and forming it into another pizza to serve a different table. Again, Dawson’s video received nearly 25 million views, which has led to thousands of people speaking about the theory on social media. Because of the buzz, Chuck E. Cheese’s was forced to make a statement about their pizza. A Chuck E. Cheese’s spokesperson said, “No conspiracies here — our pizzas are made to order and we prepare our dough fresh in the restaurant, which means that they’re not always perfectly uniform in shape, but always delicious.” While their statement may have cleared the air for some, many are still confused over the shaping; many other brands are known for freshly made dough, yet their pizzas are not uneven.
Other YouTubers are creating videos in which they order a pizza from Chuck E. Cheese’s to see if their pizza is flawed. The number of social media posts is overpowering the one statement Chuck E Cheese’s made, whether or not the theory is true. In order for the business to maintain their reputation, they should look at another pizza company as an example.
Domino’s suffered a crisis in 2009 in which a Domino’s employee had blown his nose onto a sandwich prior to delivery. A video was taken of this event and posted to YouTube; two workers were later fired and faced felony charges. Despite whether or not the food was delivered, the population was widely upset and disgusted with the actions from a well-trusted pizza company. The company was able to regain loyalty by making a statement immediately. According to Melissa Agnes, a crisis management strategist, the brand “responded to the crisis on the same channel it broke out on, optimized the video to be found alongside the offending video, showed true sincerity and humanized the brand and the situation, and explained the measures they were taking to correct the unfortunate situation.”
In order for Chuck E. Cheese’s to completely debunk the theories about their brand, they should film a video about how their pizzas are made to prove why they are shaped the way they are. Click here to learn what experts say about effective crisis communication.