Papa John's is confronting its crisis: Customers think it has a racism problem. 
 
 In a new ad, the pizza chain shows some of the furious messages it received after its founder blamed NFL protests for poor sales and later admitted using the N-word. 
 
 "Racism is disgusting and I won't support it," one person wrote. Another said that "blaming players for poor sales with dog whistle racism was a hack move." 
 
 Between the messages, words from the company appear on the screen. 
 
 "You expected better from Papa John's. So did we," the company writes. "Thank you for your honesty ... It is making us better." 
 
 Papa John's is struggling with declining sales, especially since founder John Schnatter was forced to resign as chairman in July, after his use of the slur came to light. 
 
 Schnatter has since said it was a mistake to resign, and is now attacking CEO Steve Ritchie in an apparent bid to regain control. 
 
 The ads recall those put out by Facebook (FB), Uber and Wells Fargo (WFC) after PR crises at those companies. All of those ads acknowledged customer concerns, although with varying degrees of directness. 
 
 The company has taken great pains to distance itself from Schnatter, removing his image from marketing materials, kicking him out of his office and trying to stop him from gaining more control of the company. 
 
 "The video produced by the Company represents another example of the Company attempting to hide the true facts," a spokesman for Schnatter said in a statement. He added that fans have called for Schnatter's return to the company. 
 
 Papa John's also announced Friday that it will roll out mandatory bias training for its workers. 
 
 Training will start in October at the corporate office and at corporate-owned stores, which make up about 20% of its the chain's US restaurants. The Papa John's leadership team finished their own training two weeks ago. 
 
 The program will include conversations about unconscious bias, racial and cultural sensitivity and managing bias. 
 
 In an open letter, Ritchie said Papa John's is also conducting an internal audit on diversity and inclusion practices, launching a program to support minority-owned franchises and starting a foundation focused on local communities. 
 
 Ritchie said he was "personally committed to adding more diversity to the leadership team of Papa John's." 
 
 Papa John's has hired Bank of America and Lazard to help stabilize the business, a source told CNNMoney on Friday. The source declined to give further details, and Bank of America and Lazard declined to comment. The news was reported earlier by Reuters. 
 
 Papa John's also seems to be following a similar playbook to that of Starbucks (SBUX), which mandated anti-bias training after two black men were arrested while waiting for a friend at a Philadelphia location. 
 
 Starbucks closed about 8,000 stores for an afternoon to conduct the elaborate training, which tapped the musician and activist Common as a virtual session leader and relied on the guidance of more than 30 experts. ||||| John Schnatter, who founded the Papa John's pizza chain in the 1980s, is leaving the chief executive seat. 
 
 He'll stay on with the company as its chairman, the company said Thursday in a press release. Replacing him is Steve Ritchie, the current chief operating officer. The change will take effect on January 1, the company said. There was no reason given for the change in leadership. 
 
 The shakeup comes after a string of public relations debacles and slumping sales. 
 
 Papa John's is a major NFL sponsor, and Schnatter wasn't shy about sharing his thoughts about players who took a knee during the national anthem to protest the treatment of black Americans, particularly by police. 
 
 President Trump earlier this year publicly criticized players who chose to kneel, ratcheting up the controversy. 
 
 "This should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago," Schnatter said on a conference call with investors in November. "The controversy is polarizing the customer, polarizing the country." 
 
 During the call, he also blamed the controversy for dismal sales. 
 
 Related: Papa John's says it didn't mean to be 'divisive' on NFL protests 
 
 Backlash ensued on social media and his remarks were criticized by those who argue the players are exercising free speech and should be permitted to do so. Late-night comics lampooned Schnatter. 
 
 And, adding to the ordeal, the white supremacist website Daily Stormer floated the idea that Papa John's was the "official pizza of the alt-right." 
 
 That forced the Louisville, Kentucky-based Papa John's to issue a clarifying statement asserting, "We condemn racism in all forms," according to the Courier-Journal. 
 
 About two weeks after Schnatter made his controversial comments, the company attempted an apology on Twitter. 
 
 Related: Papa John's says NFL protests are hurting sales 
 
 "The statements made on our earnings call were describing the factors that impact our business and we sincerely apologize to anyone that thought they were divisive," the tweet read. "That definitely was not our intention." 
 
 The pizza chain said that it supports "the players' movement to create a new platform for change" but that it also believes that "as Americans, we should honor our anthem." 
 
 "We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward. Open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis," the company tweeted, offering a "middle finger" emoji to "those guys." 
 
 Papa John's has also faced waning sales recently. The company's stock price is down more than 30% so far this year. 
 
 Ritchie, Schnatter's replacement, joined Papa John's as a customer service rep in 1996 making $6 per hour. He went on to own a Papa John's franchise, and in 2014 he was promoted to chief operating officer. 
 
 --CNNMoney's Ahiza Garcia and Rob McLean contributed to this report. ||||| Papa John's founder John Schnatter admitted to using the N-word during a May conference call and apologized for the comments after Forbes magazine detailed the incident in an article Wednesday. 
 
 “News reports attributing the use of inappropriate and hurtful language to me during a media training session regarding race are true," Schnatter said in a statement released by Papa John's. "Regardless of the context, I apologize. Simply stated, racism has no place in our society.” 
 
 Schnatter was on a call with marketing agency Laundry Service when he tried to downplay comments he made about the National Football League and allegedly said, “Colonel Sanders called blacks n-----s," and complained that the KFC founder never faced public backlash. The call was a role-playing exercise for Schnatter to prevent future public relations fumbles. 
 
 “The past six months we’ve had to take a hard look in the mirror and acknowledge that we’ve lost a bit of focus on the core values that this brand was built on and that delivered success for so many years,” CEO Steve Ritchie said in an internal memo obtained by CNBC that was sent Wednesday to team members, franchisees and operators. "We’ve got to own up and take the hit for our missteps and refocus on the constant pursuit of better that is the DNA of our brand.” 
 
 Shares of Papa John's fell by as much as 5.9 percent to a new 12-month low of $47.80 a share in intraday trading Wednesday — erasing $96.2 million in market value. The stock recovered somewhat, closing down 4.8 percent at $48.33 a share. Papa John's is down 13 percent so far this year while Domino's shares are up 48.5 percent. 
 
 "Papa John’s condemns racism and any insensitive language, no matter the situation or setting," a company spokesman told CNBC. "Our company was built on a foundation of mutual respect and acceptance." 
 
 Laundry Service, which is owned by sports agency owner Casey Wasserman, reportedly cut ties with an unnamed client in late May due to "the regrettable recent events that several employees of Laundry Service witnessed during interactions with a client’s executive,” according a letter obtained by Bloomberg. 
 
 Shelley Lewis, a spokeswoman for Laundry Service, declined to comment. 
 
 Public relations consultant Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants in Irvine, California, told CNBC that it was a "colossal boneheaded move of which they will now have to rethink if they want to use him as a spokesperson." 
 
 The incident underscores the risks of using an individual to represent a brand, said crisis communications consultant Dan Hill, CEO of Hill Impact. 
 
 “This is the danger when organizations are too tied to a personality,” Hill told CNBC. “We saw it with Subway and Jared ... when things are going well and those people are popular, and they are doing smart things, it works. But then you have a single point of failure and it’s that person’s actions that reflect on the entire organization.” 
 
 The Forbes report comes just seven months after Schnatter abruptly exited the C-suite. Schnatter faced backlash in November for critical statements he made about the NFL that ultimately caused the league to remove Papa John's as an official sponsor. 
 
 He blamed NFL leadership for hurting the company's performance because it hadn't resolved the ongoing controversy over players kneeling in protest during the national anthem. 
 
 While Schnatter is no longer the CEO of Papa John's, he is still chairman and is tied with the brand's image and is featured prominently on the company's pizza boxes. 
 
 “I think the big thing for them going forward is how do they distance themselves entirely from John?" Hill said. ||||| Despite its best efforts to rehabilitate its brand, Papa John's is still paying for offensive remarks made by its founder. 
 
 John Schnatter admitted last month to using the N-word on a conference call. He apologized and resigned as Papa John's chairman soon after Forbes published a story about the incident. 
 
 On Tuesday, the company said its same-store sales in North America fell 10.5% in July and 6.1% in the most recent quarter. 
 
 "Results have been challenged by recent events," Steve Ritchie, president and CEO of Papa John's (PZZA), said in a statement. "Our entire leadership team understands the importance of getting our culture and business improvements right." 
 
 Shares fell more than 10% after hours. 
 
 On a call with analysts, Ritchie said that Papa John's stakeholders agreed with the company to take Schnatter out of the public eye. 
 
 Related: Papa John's to pizza-eaters: We're listening 
 
 "I have spent a significant amount of time in recent weeks in the field, talking with our franchisees, our customers, our drivers and employees," he said. "Franchisees and partners have expressed overwhelming support for ... our decision to remove John as brand spokesperson." 
 
 "We are not dependent, nor should we be, on one person," he said. 
 
 Days after the racial slur scandal broke, Papa John's announced that it would remove Schnatter's image from its marketing materials, where he featured prominently. A special committee of the board of directors will oversee an outside auditor's investigation into Papa John's culture, including the company's existing processes, policies and systems related to diversity and inclusion. 
 
 Ritchie said that Papa John's made the decision to distance itself from Schnatter after he said in November that the NFL protests hurt sales. 
 
 "The research and analysis we conducted after comments by our founder in November of 2017 have made it clear that we needed to move away from a founder-centric marketing plan," Ritchie said. "Obviously, the recent events have further evidenced that we need to move on." 
 
 Ritchie noted that comparable sales have slumped since November. Schnatter left the chief executive seat at his namesake company in December last year. 
 
 Related: Papa John sues Papa John's 
 
 But Schnatter, who said he regrets resigning from his post as chairman, isn't walking away without a fight. He remains on the board, and owns 29% of the company's stock. He has filed a lawsuit against the company, requesting to see company documents "because of the unexplained and heavy-handed way in which the company has treated him since the publication of a story that falsely accused him of using a racial slur." 
 
 Papa John's denied Schnatter's claims in a statement. The company said it was "saddened and disappointed" by the lawsuit, which it called "needless and wasteful." 
 
 Schnatter expressed concern over the health of the company in a statement published on Tuesday. 
 
 "History shows that the Company performs better with me involved, and it declines when I step away," he said. 
 
 — CNN's Jordan Valinsky and Jackie Wattles contributed to this report.
– "I'd rather have frozen pizza than racist pizza." So reads a customer tweet about Papa John's, and it's not one the pizza company is shying away from. Quite the contrary, the message is highlighted in the chain's first new ad since John Schnatter was forced to resign last month over his use of the n-word. In the 65-second ad posted to social media Friday, a series of angry tweets are displayed, then the words, "You expected better from Papa John's. So did we." Then, after showing more tweets, the words "Thank you for your anger" appear. That last word is subsequently replaced with "criticism" and "honesty." "It is making us better." CEO Steve Ritchie also posted extensive comments on Twitter, which you can read here, and a letter to customers, which you can read here. CNN reports the company plans to hold mandatory bias training sessions beginning in October at its company-owned stores and is going live with a minority-owned franchise expansion and development program. The ad certainly hasn't abated Schnatter's anger. A rep for the former CEO had this to say, per CNBC: "The video produced by the company represents another example of the company attempting to hide the true facts. It omits the avalanche of comments made by customers, employees, and others who support John Schnatter and feel that the company is wrong."