BBDO Teams Simpson, Muppets for Pizza Hut

http://199.249.170.191/aw/regional/east/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2077358

NEW YORK Pizza Hut revealed today details of its two Super Bowl spots, which will support its new 4forAll Pizza and star Jessica Simpson and The Muppets.

One of the spots, via BBDO, New York, will air prior to kickoff on Feb. 1 on CBS. It is part of the Dallas-based chain’s $50 million multimedia push for 4forAll Pizza and represents Simpson’s first national commercial. Print, point-of-purchase, Internet and a Hispanic media component support the product, four individually topped, six-inch square pizzas in a single box.

The pre-game spot finds The Muppets in a debate about which pizza topping to order. For example, Kermit the Frog wants green toppings, Animal wants meat and Miss Piggy is a vegetarian. Simpson suggests, “Why not the 4forAll Pizza? It has more than 18 possible toppings … which gives you more than six million topping options.” Left speechless by Simpson’s math observations, Miss Piggy pretends to have known this all along, giving her reason to grab the pizza away from Simpson. “Beauty before brains,” offers Miss Piggy. A second spot features The Muppets without Simpson.

“The Sunday of the big game is one of the most-watched television events for families and friends, and it’s the biggest Sunday of the year for Pizza Hut,” Tom James, chief marketing officer at Pizza Hut, said in a statement. “It makes sense for us to advertise our new 4forAll Pizza in the pre-game hours when hungry football fans are deciding what pizza to order.”

—Brandweek staff report