Pizza Hut is launching a £2 million television initiative in
a fresh attempt to keep its distance from rivals trying to close the gap
on its number-one status in the UK market.
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has produced the campaign - a pair of 30-second
commercials to boost sales of the Stuffed Crust pizza - which will break
nationally on Monday and run for a month.
The pop song The world is just a great big onion sets the tone of the
films in which children at a birthday party and a group of friends at
home are bizarrely featured tucking into takeaway meals of raw turnips
and onions.
Reality returns when the vegetables are switched for Stuffed Crust
pizzas and true enjoyment begins.
The films were written by Ben Kay, art directed by Cameron Blackley and
directed by Luciano Podcaminsky for Peluca. Media is through PHD.
Bill Ogle, Pizza Hut's marketing director, said: "The new campaign uses
a quirky idea to show the popularity and appeal of a Stuffed Crust
pizza."
The new round of advertising takes place against a background of a
general decline in pizza dining and fierce rivalry between Pizza Hut and
Pizza Express for domination of the £730 million UK market.
Pizza Hut, which runs the UK's largest chain of pizza restaurants, has
been attempting to sustain sales with product innovations such as
Stuffed Crust.
Earlier this year, it put £7.5 million behind a three-month
campaign for a new pizza with a thin base called The Edge.
