0:02 do you like what you see here on the
0:05 outside you're going to love what you'll
0:07 see on the inside why do I like Hooters
0:10 well I will give you two reasons the
0:12 boobs and the hot [Music]
0:14 [Music]
0:17 wings Hooter pioneered the concept of a
0:19 breastaurant and the idea is pretty
0:22 simple they only hire attractive women
0:24 and then make them wear short tight
0:27 uniforms while serving food but this
0:30 raises some questions how Hooters
0:32 managed to succeed despite Decades of
0:36 criticism controversy and lawsuits how
0:38 do they get away with violating
0:41 employment and discrimination laws and
0:42 is it true that Hooters could now be
0:45 facing Mass closures and that the end of
0:48 Hooters is near or perhaps most
0:51 interestingly of all why did Hooters
0:55 start an airline yes seriously in this
0:57 video all of these questions and more
1:00 will be answered as we take a journey
1:03 through the bizarre history of Hooters
1:04 one of the most controversial restaurants
1:07 restaurants
1:10 ever oh let me see yeah how much tips
1:14 did you make uh 31
1:33 Hooters was incorporated on April Fall's
1:36 day in 1983 and even the founders didn't
1:39 think their idea was going to work they
1:41 were six friends with no experience in
1:43 the restaurant industry who wanted a
1:44 place that they couldn't get kicked out
1:47 of the plan was simple put all the
1:50 things they liked together in one place
1:53 cheap beer hot wings big screen TVs with
1:56 sports on and girls and that would be
1:58 their unique selling point they'd only
2:00 hire Young attra women and make them
2:02 wear tight revealing outfits while
2:03 serving the
2:06 food employees were required to sign a
2:08 contract stating they agreed to wear the
2:10 Hooters girl uniform and that their
2:12 responsibility was to interact with and
2:15 entertain the customers as for the
2:17 company name HOAs claim it's a reference
2:19 to the sound an owl makes as they have
2:22 an owl in their logo but it's obviously
2:24 a double on Tandra and it said they got
2:27 the name from an old SNL sketch and I
2:29 believe it's derogatory to refer to a
2:33 woman's breasts as boobs jugs
2:35 jugs
2:38 winnebagos or golden
2:42 Boos and you should only refer to them as
2:43 as
2:45 Hooters the location of the first
2:47 Hooter's restaurant was clear water in
2:51 Florida and on October 4th 1983 Hooters
2:53 officially opened its doors for
2:56 business however their chances of
2:59 success looked slim every recent
3:01 business in in the area seemed to have
3:02 failed and the founders were so
3:05 unprepared they had to beg a friend to
3:07 drive down and show them how to turn on
3:09 their industrial kitchen
3:11 equipment to make matters worse on their
3:13 very first day the founders thought they
3:16 were going to get shut down you see even
3:17 though they had applied for their
3:20 alcohol license the paperwork hadn't
3:22 come through by their launch day and
3:24 that first day two police officers
3:26 showed up asking to see their alcohol
3:29 license it turns out though they weren't
3:30 real police offic officers one of the
3:32 founders just thought it would be funny
3:34 to prank the other guys but when they
3:36 weren't busy pranking each other the
3:38 founders worked on Advertising their new
3:40 restaurant since they had a limited
3:43 budget they had to get creative in fact
3:45 one of their very first marketing
3:47 attempts was literally to rent a chicken
3:49 suit and run around nearby streets
3:51 trying to get attention as silly as that
3:54 sounds a local newspaper wrote about it
3:56 so it actually did help introduce a few
3:59 new people to Hooters but their first
4:02 Big Break was during the 1984 Super Bowl
4:04 between the Raiders and Redskins a star
4:06 player for the Redskins John Riggins
4:08 came to Hooters before the game for
4:09 lunch and then it returned with his
4:12 teammates after the game photographs of
4:14 them at Hooters circulated in the papers
4:17 and Hooters doubled their sales almost
4:19 immediately that same year the original
4:21 owners sold expansion and franchise
4:24 rights to a group of investors who
4:26 created Hooters of America this new
4:29 Corporation was in charge of franchising
4:30 and over the the next few years they
4:33 opened dozens more Hooters
4:35 locations Hooters then got another big
4:37 breakthrough in July
4:40 1986 the first Hooters girl then Austin
4:42 became Playboy Magazine's Playmate of
4:44 the month and Playboy included an
4:47 article all about Hooters which was the
4:50 perfect free promotion for them so by
4:52 1991 Hooters had reached more than 50
4:55 restaurants and a 100 million in Revenue
4:58 some people clearly loved the concept
5:01 but others absolutely hated it and this
5:20 issues in 1997 three men from Chicago
5:22 sued Hooters after being denied
5:24 employment based on their gender and
5:28 Hooter settled so they ended up getting
5:30 $19,100 each
5:32 in response Hooters agreed to create
5:34 other jobs in their business that were
5:36 open to everyone but Hooters said they
5:39 would not change their rules about only
5:41 hiring women for their weight staff
5:42 after all they literally called them
5:45 Hooters girls as a result the equal
5:47 employment opportunity commission
5:49 launched an investigation into the
5:51 company and their conclusion was that
5:53 since Hooters clearly was discriminating
5:56 based on gender they should pay millions
5:58 to all the men who'd been rejected for
6:01 jobs but here the thing even though
6:03 normally restaurants wouldn't be able to
6:04 stop someone getting a job because of
6:06 their gender Hooters argued that the
6:08 Hooters girls are there to provide
6:10 entertainment and there are different
6:12 rules when it comes to hiring
6:14 entertainers for example gender
6:16 discrimination is allowed when hiring an
6:19 actor for a specifically male or female
6:22 role and Hooters basically said they're
6:24 auditioning for the role of Hooters girl
6:27 and by hiring waitresses as entertainers
6:28 it also means the company can make
6:30 strict rules about how they look and
6:33 what they wear so Hooters can specify in
6:35 the contract that their hair must always
6:37 be down and that makeup is required
6:40 every day Hooters also had another
6:42 defense in employment law there is
6:44 something called a Bonafide occupational
6:47 qualification exception which recognizes
6:49 that in some rare instances it may be
6:52 necessary to only hire a specific gender
6:54 and Hooters argued that hiring
6:56 attractive women is a necessary aspect
6:58 of their business model they said the
7:00 essence of our business is the Hooters
7:02 girl and the experience she provides to
7:05 her customers so that's how they're able
7:08 to only hire female weight staff and
7:10 Hooters actually used these
7:11 discrimination lawsuits to their
7:14 advantage they released a big ad
7:16 campaign with a hairy guy called Vince
7:18 in a Hooter's uniform the idea was to
7:20 show how ridiculous it would be if they
7:23 did have to hire men for that role they
7:25 spent a lot of money putting him in
7:27 newspapers and billboards and so they
7:29 managed to turn the lawsuits into a
7:30 great Market marketing
7:33 campaign however they would soon be
7:35 facing a whole new [Music]
7:50 controversy in April 2001 Hooter
7:53 announced a contest for its employees
7:55 whoever sold the most beer could win a
7:58 brand new Toyota it wasn't specified
8:00 which Toyota but either way it sounded
8:01 like a great
8:04 prize so all the Hooters girls got to
8:06 work selling as much beer as they
8:08 possibly could the eventual winner was
8:11 Jodie Barry and she was thrilled imagine
8:13 working a low paid job and then winning
8:16 a brand new car her manager told her the
8:18 good news and then blindfolded her and
8:20 led her out to the Hooter parking lot to
8:24 reveal her prize however when Jodi's
8:26 blindfold was removed in front of her
8:29 was not a Toyota car instead on the
8:33 round was a toy Yoda a small figurine of
8:36 the popular Star Wars character her
8:39 manager started laughing but jod did not
8:42 laugh she began to realize what had
8:45 happened you see the contest had started
8:49 April 1st or in other words April Fall's
8:51 day and her manager now explained all
8:56 she'd won was a toy Yoda not a car jod
8:58 didn't see the funny side of it though
9:00 she' worked hard in the the contest and
9:03 so she was angry in fact she decided to sue
9:04 sue
9:07 Hooters the story did end up having a
9:09 happy ending for jod though as they
9:11 reached a settlement the exact amount
9:14 she was paid wasn't specified but her
9:15 attorney said jod would have enough to
9:18 go to a local car dealership and pick
9:21 out whatever type of Toyota she wants as
9:23 for Hooters despite paying out money in
9:25 these various lawsuits it wasn't a huge
9:28 deal for them overall their business was
9:30 thriving and they were expanding into
9:33 even more International markets and so
9:35 with their chicken wings selling so well
9:38 hoo just did what any logical restaurant would
9:39 would
9:42 do start an
9:49 what before we get to the next chapter I
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11:14 in 2003 Hooters had lots of cash and
11:17 wanted to use that to expand their brand
11:19 so they purchased a small Airline called
11:21 Pace Airlines and rebranded it to
11:24 Hooter's air they decorated the planes
11:26 with their orange Hooters branding and
11:28 they announced that on every flight
11:30 there would be two local Hooters girls
11:32 plucked straight out of their
11:33 restaurants what would you tell people
11:35 out there watching the show about flying
11:37 Hooters a you should definitely do it
11:39 it's the experience like no other by
11:41 yourself it's going to be the most
11:43 exciting time of your life contrary to
11:44 what you might think these were not the
11:47 flight attendant and they had no Airline
11:49 training instead the Hooter girl's job
11:51 on the plane was just to entertain
11:54 passengers so basically Midway through
11:56 every flight two Hooters girls dressed
11:58 in the distinctive skimpy Hooters
12:01 uniform would get up to sing songs host
12:03 trivia games and sell Hooter's
12:06 merchandise amazingly this actually
12:08 worked quite well at first customers
12:10 perhaps wanted to try hooa a just for
12:12 the novelty plus they also offered
12:14 pretty cheap flights typically a flat
12:19 rate of $129 each way however hudas a
12:22 did not have a happy ending after just 3
12:25 years they ended up with a $40 million
12:28 loss and there were several reasons HOAs
12:30 a didn't work out
12:32 firstly at the time many people were
12:34 still wary of getting on flights after
12:37 9/11 so there was less demand secondly
12:39 more lowcost Airlines had been popping
12:42 up meaning more competition and thirdly
12:44 fuel prices had been rising
12:46 substantially which meant higher costs
12:48 this was a massive problem as the
12:50 airline industry is known for narrow
12:52 profit margins in fact there's a running
12:54 joke that if you want to be a
12:56 millionaire step one is to be a
12:58 billionaire and step two is to start an
13:00 airline congratulations you're now a
13:03 millionaire so basically all of this
13:05 together meant that eventually Hooter's
13:07 air just wasn't economically viable it
13:09 also didn't help that Hooters had a bit
13:12 of a stigma of being SD so even if
13:14 Hooters could match the other lowcost
13:17 airlines a family is more likely to
13:19 choose the airline that doesn't feature
13:21 the Hooters girls so faced with all of
13:25 these challenges in 2006 Hooters Airline
13:28 officially shut down and Hooters would
13:46 problem Hooter today has more than 420
13:49 stores in 29 countries around the world
13:51 but their success has motivated more
13:54 competition like Twin Peaks and Tilted
13:56 Kilt which basically offer the same
13:59 premise but with different uniforms in
14:01 in fact there was a lot of controversy
14:03 when a former CEO of Hooters went to
14:05 start a franchise at Twin Peaks and
14:07 Hooters then sued the company for
14:10 stealing Trade
14:12 Secrets however some people would say
14:15 the Hooters concept is dying out an
14:17 article from Business Insider noted that
14:19 Hooter has been on the decline for a
14:21 while and they suggested that could be
14:24 because Millennials are less interested
14:27 in breasts than their Elders now I'll be
14:29 honest I'm not sure that's true but
14:31 either way in response to the declining
14:34 sales in 2017 Hooters launched a
14:36 spin-off called Hoots with more reserved
14:38 outfits designed to be more
14:40 familyfriendly they also started
14:42 focusing more on delivery for people
14:45 embarrassed to go to their stores
14:46 Hooters acknowledged many people
14:48 wouldn't step foot in our restaurants
14:51 but they want our product and a Hooters
14:52 consultant added now if your partner
14:54 sees a charge for Hooters you can just
14:57 say it was delivered the problem for
14:59 Hooters is that many would say their
15:02 food was never their real selling point
15:03 in fact a lot of people think the food
15:06 is overrated to make matters worse a
15:08 study by the University of Tennessee
15:10 found that working at restaurants and
15:12 yes that really is what they call
15:14 restaurants like Hooters was damaging to
15:16 women's mental health they also found
15:18 these employees experienced higher
15:21 levels of anxiety and disorder eating
15:23 there have also been some serious
15:25 accusations and lawsuits from hoter
15:27 staff themselves including numerous
15:29 cases of unwanted sex ual advances from
15:32 managers and claims of it being a toxic
15:35 workplace for example one Hooter's girl
15:36 said she was told if she didn't lose
15:39 weight within 30 days she'd be fired
15:42 Hooters then faced even more backlash in
15:44 2021 when they made a change to their
15:46 uniform and made it even smaller and
15:49 skimpier it went viral as Hooters girls
15:51 posted it on social media complaining it
15:54 was so revealing although the company
15:55 then backtracked saying the employees
15:57 could choose to still wear the old
16:00 design if they preferred but either way
16:02 clearly opinion on Hooters is going to
16:05 be divided on the one hand you could
16:08 argue the concept is outdated and times
16:10 have moved on as many would say it's
16:12 objectifying women and just kind of
16:15 sleazy but on the other hand you could
16:17 argue that if adults are choosing to
16:18 work there and many say they've had a
16:20 very positive experience and made great
16:23 tips what's the harm you can simply
16:26 choose not to work there or eat there if
16:28 you don't like it so let me know in the
16:30 comments which side you fall on but
16:33 either way whil HOAs has been successful
16:36 it's certainly not as successful as Sony
16:38 so if you want to learn the insane truth
16:40 about how Sony built their empire just
16:43 click here to watch that business story
16:45 next I hope you enjoyed this history of
16:47 Hooters and I'll see you in the next
