Two employees from global pizza chain Domino's have been sacked after posting footage of their unhygienic backroom antics on YouTube.
In the series of online videos, a female Domino's employee films her male co-worker blowing snot onto pizzas, farting on salami and rubbing cleaning implements between his buttocks.
"This is my special Italian sandwich," the male employee says at one point, before sticking a piece of cheese up his nose and placing it on what appears to be a customer's order.
In another video, entitled "Poopie Dishes", the same employee drops his shorts, aggressively wipes a cloth between his buttocks and uses it to wash a pizza pan.
The company reacted swiftly to head off a publicity disaster after the videos were posted to blogs on Monday and Tuesday.
Two readers of the blog Consumerist used a small number of clues to pinpoint the store's location in the US state of North Carolina and alerted Domino's headquarters.
Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre responded by saying the company had fired the two employees and was looking at the possibility of legal action.
"The 'challenge' that comes with the freedom of the internet is that any idiot with a camera and an internet link can do stuff like this — and ruin the reputation of a brand that's nearly 50 years old," Mr McIntyre wrote.
The rogue employees removed the videos from YouTube yesterday, but other users swiftly reposted them, ensuring they remained in viral circulation.
An apology from the female employee known only as "Kristy", also posted to Consumerist, claimed that the videos were pranks and that no snot-covered pizzas were served to customers.
"No food was ever sent out to any customer. We would never put something like that on you tube [sic] if it were real," the letter said.
But it may be too late for Domino's to contain a social media marketing disaster — news of the videos is already spreading rapidly through Twitter.
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