2 /5 Gary Rummage: I came here for pizza, not a case study in how lazy and predictable human behavior can be—but here we are.
This place decided to name two menu items after figures tied to Michigan Wolverines football, clearly trying to piggyback on fame instead of doing even the most basic thinking about who they were elevating. One was the head coach, the other an assistant who later became part of a very public scandal involving poor personal decisions that affected real people—wives, kids, families. Fame doesn’t cancel out character flaws, and headlines have a way of catching up.
Now that those names have become uncomfortable, the restaurant has quietly removed the items after catching backlash. But that’s kind of the point: we’re so eager to celebrate success that we skip the research, skip the reflection, and slap a famous name on a product because it feels safe at the time. Until it isn’t.
Piggybacking works both ways. When the ship starts sinking, everyone riding along goes down with it. This restaurant learned that lesson the hard way. The pizza might be fine, but the decision-making was weak, and the retreat afterward just highlights how shallow the original move was.
Food for thought—literally and otherwise.
