CE OH NO!

I feel like I haven't watched television in EIGHT YEARS. What's wrong with me?

In this economy (TM)*, perhaps no public figure has been more ubiquitous than the now equally dreaded/pitied CEO. Ed Liddy gives out tax payer, bailout money as bonuses to AIG big wigs. For Shame. Obama asks Rick Wagoner to step down as chairman and CEO of General Motors. For double shame!

Enough finger wagging at Ed and Rick, though. I'm calling out someone else who has put himself in the public eye: Domino's CEO David Brandon. If you've ever been in the position of wanting to order a pizza in my presence any time past midnight in a city that is not New York, you've heard it before: every slice saves a fetus. While Domino's never went on the record with this slogan, it was the truth at least for as long as founder and CEO Tom Monaghan was in charge. Monaghan's blatant ties to the Catholic Church and his subsequent biases were a disturbing part of his business model post his late eighties "religious awakening," and jaw dropping amounts of Domino's profits were donated to pro-life causes. For the best account I have ever seen as to how creepy this shiznit really is, check out this New Yorker article from two years ago. HE BUILT A SEGREGATED CATHOLIC TOWN for Christ's sake--little to no pun intended.

While David Brandon may be in charge now, this choice in successor has done little to change the company's politics; the red phone with the direct line to the Vatican may not be in the CEO office anymore, but the Republican party ties certainly are. Which is why it's kind of gross to see this, what I am assuming is merely an abused platform for Brandon's expected 2010 gubernatorial run:


So as to not be a total downer, I will balance this criticism with a president/CEO who was adorably capable of speaking for his company. Jim Perdue, of Perdue Chicken, has that Benjamin Button charm to him, and also is the spitting image of Shermie, the imaginary friend I had for the first three years of my life. What a rapscallion!




*Seriously, someone must have gotten the rights to this phrase by now. It is UNAVOIDABLE.