Michigan Steakhouse's Promotion Blows Up After Wolverines Blow out Rutgers

A Michigan steakhouse had to deal with both good news and bad news this weekend.

The good news for the Ann Arbor location of chain Ruth's Chris Steak House is that a promotion it ran involving the Michigan Wolverines is receiving an incredible amount of attention nationwide. The bad news is that the promotion could turn out to be costly.

On Friday, the restaurant announced that fans would be able to reap the benefits of a Michigan victory over Rutgers on Saturday:

The details are simple: For every point the Wolverines beat the Scarlet Knights by, fans would receive that percentage off their bill the following week. It is important to note, however, that the discount was capped at 50 percent.

Including a limit turned out to be a wise move.

Michigan was up by 50 points less than five minutes after halftime on its way to a 78-0 trouncing of Rutgers, which means fans can go to the steakhouse through Thursday and get their meal half off.

You better believe people are taking advantage of the deal. According to ESPN.com's Dan Murphy, every reservation slot through Thursday has been filled—and the restaurant has even had to turn away customers:

Ruth's Chris Steak House has received an unbelievable amount of free publicity as a result of the promotion. For now, it just has to weather the storm and get through the week as painlessly as possible.

"I love this," general manager Buzz Goebel said, per Murphy. "It's kind of scary, but you can't buy this kind of advertising. If we execute perfectly, we're in good shape."

The amount of buzz this promotion has gotten for the steakhouse should help ease the sting of the steep discounts. On the other hand, businesses everywhere have learned a valuable lesson from this situation—always put a cap on the discount.

Also, never run a deal that involves Rutgers football.

[Ruth's Chris Steak House Ann Arbor]