'Papa' John Schnatter releases ad campaign begging you to love him again

Papa John.
(Image credit: Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Papa John loves you very, very much. He misses you "more than words can express!" Please, take him back, he implores.

Those are the general themes — and the literal words — of "Papa" John Schnatter's newest ad campaign, which reveals the hidden agony of a former pizza maven. With a website and a full-page newspaper ad launched Wednesday, the pizza chain's founder is lobbying you, his beautiful employees and customers, to love him again.

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But Schnatter is "very sorry you all have to go through this," he says on SavePapaJohns.com. "I can only imagine how difficult this entire situation is on you," he writes, adding that you should "know that in every minute of every day you are all in my thoughts and prayers." Dearest pizza lovers, please know the same message appears in a full page ad in Wednesday's Louisville Courier Journal, the newspaper reports.

The Papa John's company released a statement Wednesday confirming it will not take him back, per the Courier Journal. But you, Papa John's beloved children, can still change your mind. Please, he begs, let him be your Papa again.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.